3

TABLE OF
CONTENTS
1. A 2010 Declaration of Broadband Inclusion for All

2. Executive Summary - A 2010 Leadership Imperative: Towards a Future

Built on Broadband

3. Creating a Broadband Development Dynamic: A Strategic Framework

for Action

3.1 Policy: From Clear Policy Leadership to an Enabling Environment

3.2 Infrastructure: Investing in Infrastructure for the Future
3.3 Technology: Future-proofing Technology
3.4 Innovation: The Changing Face of Innovation
3.5 Content and Applications: The Growing Importance of Content
and Applications
3.6 People: Building the Network of Ideas and Information
3.7 Government: Government takes the lead in creating demand

4. Broadband and the Interlinked and Interdependent MDG Agenda

5. Broadband and Beyond the MDGs

6. Recommendations and Proposed Plan of Action

Acknowledgements
Disclaimer
This Report does not necessarily represent the opinions of the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU) or the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
or their respective Member States, Sector Members, Associates and Secretariat.

The views of the Commissioners reflected in the Report are personal and do not entail any
responsibility for their respective Administrations or the Organizations to which they are elected
or associated with or of which they are staff members.
1
New York, September 19, 2010
We, the members of the Broadband
Commission for Digital Development,
A 2010
address this Declaration to the world
leaders attending the 2010 MDG Summit
at United Nations Headquarters.
Declaration
We call upon you to embrace a common
leadership vision that has profound
implications for the accelerated
of Broadband
achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) by the internationally-agreed
deadline of 2015. That common vision is
Inclusion
broadband inclusion for all. It is a vision
that embodies effective and sustainable
solutions to the great global challenges
for All
of the 21st Century in poverty, health,
education, gender equality, climate change
and the seismic demographic shifts in
youth and ageing populations.
5
We believe that the Internet and
other information and communication
technologies (ICTs) should be used for the
benefit of all mankind. Beyond any physical
or virtual infrastructure that has preceded
it in the industrial revolution or information
age, and as a catalyst and critical enabler
for recovery in the wake of the recent
economic slowdown, broadband will be the
basis for digital invention and innovation
and the foundation for digital and other
investments that lie at the very heart of our
shared knowledge economy and society.
We firmly believe that with the strategic
and innovative use of broadband ICTs, the
international development community can
move beyond ‘business as usual’ and that
it will be possible to achieve the inherently
interlinked MDG agenda by 2015 to address
the existing and emerging global challenges
of the 21st Century.
Put plainly, we believe the models of
the mobile and Internet revolutions can
transform global development and have
fundamentally thrived because they are
bottom-up, market-led models. By forging
a common vision and understanding of
the needs and requirements for ubiquitous
and higher capacity access to the Internet,
governments have today an unprecedented
opportunity to unleash the creativity
and inventiveness of their citizens and
industries to innovate and invest in health
and education. Although broadband is a
means to an end, and not an end in itself,
ICTs and broadband can help generate
jobs, growth, productivity and, ultimately,
long-term economic competitiveness.
Timing is everything. In September 2000,
when the historic Millennium Declaration
was agreed by 189 UN Member States,
6 7
there were some 740 million mobile
cellular subscriptions and nearly 400
million Internet users worldwide. In 2010,
there are more than 5 billion mobile cellular
subscriptions and over 1.8 billion Internet
users according to ITU’s most recent data,
with the majority located in the developing
world. It is now high time to take the next
great digital leap forward toward our
broadband future.
The implications are enormous.
International estimates suggest that for
every 10 per cent increase in broadband
penetration we can expect an average of
1.3 per cent additional growth in national
gross domestic product (GDP), and we
concur with OECD findings that justify
rapid broadband roll-out in all OECD
member countries. ITU estimates that by
2015 at least half the world’s population
should have access to broadband content
and communication.
We believe that broadband inclusion for
all will represent a momentous economic
and social change commensurate with
the very problems that the MDGs aim to
solve, and that it will be a game-changer
in addressing rising healthcare costs,
delivering digital education for all, and
mitigating the effects of climate change.
Already, we see the transformational
progress which digital inclusion offers to
youth, women, the elderly and people with
mental and physical disabilities in rich and
poor countries alike.
We strongly believe that getting the
broadband policy and investment mix right
requires coherent and concerted political
will and leadership from the top as well
as grassroots support. Critically, this will
require a newly proactive and progressive
approach to creating an enabling
environment for broadband inclusion for
all via the convergent and interdependent
forces of policy, infrastructure, technology,
innovation, content and applications,
people and government.
While local conditions vary, there are
some similarities in the issues affecting
developed and developing countries and
in the solutions to those issues – including
enlightened political leadership, shared
responsibility for a shared resource and the
need to create a regulatory environment
conducive to investment and innovation.
We urge national governments not to
limit market entry nor tax broadband
unnecessarily to enable the market to
achieve its full growth potential; to radically
rethink the availability of adequate radio
frequency spectrum in the broadband era;
and to adhere to the guiding principles of
fair competition to promote access to all,
including fair licensing procedures. At the
international level, coordinated standards
for interoperability must be established that
can grow markets in devices, networks and
software through economies of scale and
significantly increased user satisfaction.
While broadband infrastructure is crucial,
we urge world leaders to recognize that
connectivity and content go hand in hand.
Therefore, it is essential that we examine
ways to develop local content and
applications in order to serve the MDGs
and other key development priorities.
Promoting access to education, health
services, agricultural and environmental
information should thus become an
integral part of the strategic deployment of
broadband infrastructure.
We affirm that in order to realize its full
potential, broadband must be anchored
around the concept of knowledge
societies, including principles of freedom
of expression, quality education for all,
universal access to information and
knowledge of and respect for cultural and
linguistic diversity. Equitable and affordable
universal access to broadband networks
and broadband-enabled applications
are the key for the delivery of online
public goods and services, the sharing of
scientific information, the strengthening
of social cohesion and the promotion of
cultural diversity.
Digital literacy and e-skills should remain
a key preoccupation of governments
and business. We encourage all to seize
the opportunity in developing further the
multilingual Internet by building on the recent
deployment of the first internationalized
domain names. Preservation of cultural
diversity and promotion of multilingualism
in cyber-space will have a positive impact
on growth in the number of Internet users
around the globe.
Trust and confidence are prerequisites.
We believe that recognition is needed by
all relevant stakeholders that, in a digital
economy, the unprecedented opportunities
afforded by flows of ideas and information
and almost limitless access to content,
culture, knowledge and applications, pose
immense challenges for existing national
and international rules and regulations.
As broadband usage increases, issues of
online privacy, confidentiality and security
are becoming more important and must
be addressed at the national, regional
and international levels. This will require
the development of technical solutions
as well as education, awareness-raising
and the establishment of related laws and
regulations. At the same time, a global
cooperative framework is needed as
these issues often extend far beyond the
boundaries of individual nations or sectors.
Digital creators are entitled to fair
compensation. Digital networks have led
to unprecedented levels of content piracy
that will be further exacerbated in the
broadband era. New models are needed
for the remuneration of content creators,
distributors and network operators –
models that are best developed through
partnership and consensus between
policy-makers and industry.
We therefore make a clarion call for
‘Broadband Inclusion for All’: for global
leadership from the top and a ground-
swell of support in shaping the broadband
future through the deployment of National
Broadband Plans, and for full-scale
recognition in policy-making of technology,
innovation and private sector investment
as the critical enablers of the international
development agenda and development in
the 21 st Century.
With this Declaration, we submit to you our
final Report of the Broadband Commission
for Digital Development to the United
Nations Secretary-General. We draw your
attention to the Recommendations and
Proposed Plan of Action contained therein
with a full pledge and commitment from us
all to continue the work of the Broadband
Commission for Digital Development
until 2015 specifically in service of the
accelerated achievement of the MDGs.
Broadband inclusion for all rests in
the hands of each and every one
of us – and it begins here with your
vision and leadership.
8 9
co-chairs Commissioners
H.E. Prof. Dr. Ali M. Abbasov
Minister of Communications and Information
Technologies, Republic of Azerbaijan

Mr. César Alierta

CEO, Telefónica

Mr. Orlando Ayala

Corporate Vice President, Chairman Emerging Markets
Microsoft Corporation

Sir Richard Branson

Founder, Virgin Group

H.E. Mr. Paul Kagame Mr. Carlos Slim Helú

Ms. Kathy Calvin
President of Rwanda Honorary Lifetime Chief Executive Officer, United Nations Foundation

Chairman of Grupo Carso

Dr. Vinton G. Cerf
VP and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google

Vice-chairs Mr. John T. Chambers

Chairman and CEO, Cisco Systems

Dr. Choi Soon-hong

Assistant Secretary-General
Chief Information Technology Officer, United Nations

Ms. Helen Clark

Administrator,
United Nations Development Programme

Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré Ms. Irina Bokova

H.E. Senator Stephen Conroy
Secretary-General, ITU Director-General, UNESCO Minister for Broadband, Communications and
the Digital Economy, Australia
10 11
Mr. Edouard Dayan Mr. Yoshinori Imai
Director-General, Universal Postal Union
President, Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union
Executive Vice-President, NHK, Japan

Ms. Milagros Del Corral

Former Director General of the National Library of Spain H.E. Mr. Ivo Ivanovski
Minister of Information Society,
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Ms. Ingrid Deltenre

Director General, European Broadcasting Union Dr. Paul Jacobs
Chairman and CEO, Qualcomm

Mr. Cheick Sidi Diarra

Under Secretary-General, United Nations
Dr. A. Reza Jafari
Special Adviser on Africa and High Representative for Least Chairman and CEO,
Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States E-Development International

Mr. Amir Dossal Dr. Kim Seang-tae

Executive Director, United Nations Office for Partnerships President, National Information Society Agency,
Republic of Korea

H.E. Mr. Ricardo Ehrlich Ms. Neelie Kroes

Vice President of the European Commission
Minister of Education and Culture, Uruguay
Commissioner for the European Digital Agenda

H.E. Ambassador Walter Fust Mr. Bruno Lanvin

Former Director-General, Swiss Development Corporation Executive Director, eLab, INSEAD

Mr. Julius Genachowski Prof. Dr. Klaus M. Leisinger

Chairman, Federal Communications Commission, President and Managing Director, Novartis
United States Foundation for Sustainable Development

Mr. Angel Gurría Mr. Leong Keng Thai

Deputy Chief Executive and Director General
Secretary-General, Organisation for Economic
(Telecoms and Post), Infocomm Development Authority
Cooperation and Development
of Singapore

Mr. Francis Gurry H.E. Ms. Suvi Lindén

Director General, World Intellectual Property Organization Minister of Communications, Finland

Mr. Mo Ibrahim Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal

Founder and Chairman, Mo Ibrahim Foundation Chairman, Bharti Airtel, Bharti Enterprises
12 13
Mr. Luis Alberto Moreno Mr. José Manuel do Rosario Toscano
President of the Inter-American Development Bank Director General and CEO,
International Telecommunications Satellite
Organization

Mr. Jay Naidoo Prof. Jeffrey Sachs

Chair, Development Bank of Southern Africa Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-
Chair, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition General for the Millennium Development Goals,
Director, The Earth Institute, Columbia University

Dr. Speranza Ndege H.E. Mr. Adama Samassékou

Director, Institute of Open, Distance & e-Learning, President, International Council of Philosophy and
Kenyatta University Human Sciences

Mr. Youssou N’Dour H.E. Ambassador Sha Zukang

Musician, Goodwill Ambassador, UNICEF Under Secretary-General,
United Nations Department of Economic and
Social Affairs

Mr. Denis O’Brien Sir Martin Sorrell

Chairman, Digicel Group Group Chief Executive, WPP

Mr. Paul S. Otellini

Dr. Shashi Tharoor
President and CEO, Intel Corporation
Member of Parliament, India

H.E. Ms. Safuneitu’uga Pa’aga Neri

Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mr. Ben Verwaayen
Samoa CEO, Alcatel-Lucent

Mr. Esteban Pacha-Vicente

Director General, International Mobile Satellite Mr. Hans Vestberg
Organization President and CEO, Ericsson

Mr. Supachai Panitchpakdi

Secretary-General, United Nations Conference on Trade Dr. Wang Jianzhou
and Development Chairman and CEO, China Mobile

Dr. Sam Pitroda

Ms. Sun Yafang
Adviser to Prime Minister of India on Public
Chairperson, Huawei Technologies
Information Infrastructure and Innovations

Mr. Christian Roisse Professor Muhammad Yunus

Executive Secretary, EUTELSAT IGO Nobel Laureate
Managing Director, Grameen Bank
2
Executive Summary
A 2010
Leadership
Imperative:
Towards a
Future Built
on Broadband
“No problem can be solved
from the same level of
consciousness that created
it” – Albert Einstein
Timing is everything. The year 2010 marks
not only a key milestone on the road to
achieving the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) and the outcomes of the
Geneva and Tunis phases of the World
Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS). It also marks the 25th anniversary
of the landmark ‘Missing Link’ report of
the Maitland Commission, which called
for the now seemingly humble target of
bringing virtually the whole of mankind
within easy reach of a telephone by the
early part of the 21st Century.

While strong market demand in the form

of mobile telephony and the Internet have
since driven the explosion of worldwide
ICT diffusion even in the world’s poorest
countries, we believe we have once again
arrived at a crossroads in the evolution of
the global digital highway, with broadband
as the next great leap forward.

The new realities and opportunities for

digital development must be fixed without
delay in the minds of world leaders as a
leadership and development imperative.
Indeed, as these very leaders gather this
week at the United Nations in New York
for the watershed 2010 MDG Summit, and
with only five years left to meet the MDGs
amid a continuing climate of fiscal and
donor uncertainty, progress still needs to
be accelerated if the MDGs are to be met,
particularly in the world’s Least Developed
Countries (LDCs).

Meanwhile, in this second decade of the

21st Century, the digital divide continues to
be a development divide that must quickly
be bridged. We firmly believe that today, the
social and economic development of every
country on earth will depend on accessible
and affordable access to broadband
networks, based on a multilingual approach,
as the basis of human opportunity for all
citizens – wherever they live and whatever
their circumstances.

We recognize the significant progress made

in recent years by many governments
to put in place an enabling environment
for ICT investment, and the resulting
investment and growth in mobile networks
and services in particular, especially in
developing countries. If we are to replicate
this ‘mobile miracle’ for broadband, then
all stakeholders must come together to
address the significant policy, regulatory,
structural and institutional hurdles that
remain in the way of widespread, global
broadband roll-out.
15
16
To look at the long-term broadband
picture, we must engage our imaginations
to envision broadband connectivity and
content as the full ripening of the digital
revolution, the fruits of which in many
cases have yet to be invented or imagined,
but which will transform our lives,
livelihoods and lifestyles permanently and
profoundly. By pulling the levers of policy
and investment together, we believe that in
2010, we can take the first steps towards
this exhilarating future.
The question is not ‘why broadband’?
The question is rather who will rise to
the challenge for social and economic
transformation offered by the mobile and
broadband revolutions? Are governments
fully aware of the enormous potential
of broadband to deliver services to
their citizens, and can industry deliver
broadband inclusion for all, even for market
segments where the business case is less
certain? Another important question is how
can broadband connectivity and content
be delivered in the most accessible and
affordable way, and to all citizens, in their
own languages?
In this brave new world of ‘digital
opportunity’, we believe the burning issue
is what price will be paid by those who fail
to make the global, regional, national and
local choices for broadband inclusion for
all – choices which must be made sooner
rather than later.
In 2010, from Brussels to Kigali, and from
New Delhi to Washington, advanced and
forward-looking policies and plans are
being put in place for nothing less than
the unleashing of ubiquitous invention,
innovation and investment via the
accelerated deployment of a ubiquitous
broadband Internet. Countries as diverse
as Australia, Brazil, China, India, Macedonia
and South Africa have launched broadband
initiatives, offering important insights and
experience to other countries.
These developments are radically and
irrevocably shifting the policy and
investment debate away from arguments
over increasing the supply of connectivity
to high-speed broadband links towards
increasing demand and adoption of digital
public and private goods and services for
the benefit of all society, via access to a vast
range of content, information, knowledge
and applications delivered by and across
all sectors of the economy.
It is critically important to build inclusive
knowledge societies in which people
can gain the capabilities from broadband-
enabled applications to transform
information into knowledge and
understanding which can empower them
to enhance their livelihoods and contribute
to the social and economic development
of their societies.
Uniting this human development agenda
with the strong business case for
broadband to boost progress towards
the MDGs is the key challenge for policy-
makers. The Broadband Commission
for Digital Development unites a panel
of pioneering policy leaders with top
business executives to draw tentative
policy conclusions and best practices from
their rich fusion of experience and insights.
This Report summarizes the key findings of
the Commission’s consultations to date.
Meeting the Millennium
Development Goals by
2015
For the international development
community, the watchwords among policy-
makers and practitioners for meeting
the interlinked MDG agenda of poverty,
education, gender, health and environment
are ‘scalability’ and ‘replicability’. Projects
delivered through broadband networks
can deliver these goals. They offer the
potential to leverage shared knowledge
interactively and instantaneously across
the globe and the possibility of unleashing
people and community power by moving
from dependency to a self-help model.
Significantly, of all the MDG targets, the
most advanced is the target for ICTs. As the
technical and policy debate on broadband
deployment now unfolds in real-time and
on a global, regional, national and local
basis, we believe it is essential that both
developed and developing countries take
a seat at the same table.
By turning on the broadband tap, we
believe it will be possible to overcome the
many early obstacles encountered on the
global digital highway, as well as many
of the perennial development challenges.
The Broadband Commission for Digital
Development has focused on the seven
convergent and interdependent forces
of Policy, Infrastructure, Technology,
Innovation, Content and Applications,
People and Government, which we
believe need to be harnessed by the
international community to build a
Broadband Development Dynamic. These
forces are expanded on in later sections In today’s global networked economy,
of this Report. broadband ICTs are a vital engine
17
A Shared Responsibility for
a Shared Resource - From
Mobile to Broadband
Today, it is widely understood that
nothing scales to critical mass quite
like cell-phones and cyber-space. The
value of the worldwide mobile and wired
Internet increases exponentially as
more people, communities and nations
become connected to it. Such ‘network
effects’ have been in evidence almost
from the birth of the mobile and Internet
market phenomena, but we are rapidly
entering a new and dramatic phase of
growth and demand.
However, deployment of broadband goes
hand in hand with the development of
applications and content. Broadband
is a tool for advancing further along the
path of inclusive knowledge societies
where access to information, freedom of
expression and human creativity are vital.
Likewise, although broadband has the
inherent capability to cut a swathe through
the silos associated with the health,
education, culture, energy, transport,
environment and other sectors, it has
all too often fallen between sectors as a
casualty of short-term micro- and macro-
economic planning. Many would argue
that these sectors are on the threshold
of systemic and fundamental change
requiring re-engineering from top to
bottom. Fundamentally, like mobile and
the early Internet, broadband could be
the next disruptive technology tool that is
about to catalyze that change.
18
driving economic growth. Broadband The challenge for policy-makers is to
technologies enable the fast and efficient promote investments in high-speed
communications across different networks (backbone and access) to
countries critical for success in the new ensure their widespread deployment in an
world economy. Broadband technologies era of changing business models. More
and services are among the high-value, flexible licensing frameworks and more
high-tech products which are growing efficient spectrum management have
fastest in international trade, generating succeeded in helping the industry navigate
new skills and sustaining strongest the transition to mobile over the last two
growth in incomes. decades; the policy consensus must
now evolve to promote the transition to
ICTs generally, and broadband more broadband networks.
specifically, can drive economic recovery
after the recent economic slowdown. All stakeholders must come together
Broadband is spurring technological to address the policy, structural and
change across a range of economic institutional hurdles to widespread
sectors – from agriculture to finance, from broadband roll-out around the globe. We
construction to healthcare and a range of believe that the greatest hope for success
other modern services. The ICT sector is a for promoting the deployment and use of
vital, strategically-important sector which broadband networks lies in a market-led
countries ignore today only at their peril. approach facilitated by an enabling policy
Neglecting the deployment of broadband environment. A market-led approach can
networks and services can severely harness the drive, dynamism and discipline
jeopardize countries’ long-term economic of the private sector. Correspondingly,
growth prospects and competitiveness in governments have a role to play in
the information age. Future service delivery policy leadership creating an enabling
in health, education, business, trade and environment for broadband roll-out and
government will all rely on broadband- creating demand for advanced national
enabled platforms, so countries must plan broadband networks.
for a future built on broadband.
Those countries that have succeeded in
Despite the lower entry barriers, faster rolling out extensive broadband networks,
payback periods, economies of scale and applications and associated content and
convenience of mobile communications, integrating them into their economic and
developing countries cannot just ‘make social fabric have done so not necessarily
do’ with mobile broadband as their access on the back of vast wealth or even great
network of choice without running the investments, but on the basis of strong
risk of being condemned to a low-speed private sector participation facilitated
path in the future information economy. by early and consistent prioritization of
Regardless of the choice of access broadband at every level of policy-making.
network, the physical transport layer in the
‘backbone’ networks needs to be wireline In a market-led approach, however,
and capable of delivering sufficiently fast incentives need to be designed and given
data speeds to ensure that developing to rolling out infrastructure to ensure that
countries can participate in the digital telecommunication networks with high
revolution and reap the full benefits of fixed costs extend beyond profitable urban
technological progress. areas to include rural communities as
19
well. Otherwise, success in deploying broadband networks may be only partial at best,
excluding rural populations and many of those in greatest need.
Since broadband technologies are pervasive and cross-cutting, broadband must be
clearly prioritized in a virtuous ‘broadband development dynamic’ across all the different
policy domains – investments in broadband are simply too important to be allowed to
become a casualty of bureaucratic rivalries or changing policy priorities.
Forging Consensus for Commitment and Coordination
For each of the seven forces mentioned above, we believe the tide is already turning in
a way that is ushering in a tidal wave of digital opportunity for the MDGs and beyond.
Each of these forces exists within a complex eco-system of its own, with determinants
for change that are still highly subjective in nature and only partially understood. Yet
as next-generation networks based on broadband rapidly become the backbone of
the digital economy, certain assumptions can be made in crafting a consensus for
commitment and coordination towards broadband inclusion for all:
• Fundamentally, this will require government-wide leadership from the very top,
at the level of Prime Minister or Head of State, with a supporting governance
mechanism;
• A broad-based ‘bottom-up’ approach is also required to build commitment to the
concept of broadband inclusion for all;
• Raising awareness of the economic and social benefits of broadband should be
publicized among policy- and decision-makers, as well as the general public;
• Most of the investments for broadband will come from the private sector, so
policy-makers need to engage with industry and investors to promote policy
objectives more broadly;
• Providing policy development skills to public authorities could help abolish some
of the existing barriers and factors that hinder widespread uptake of broadband
use in the population;
• For areas where private investments are not feasible, public  authorities  and
private entities should find innovative ways of cooperating to achieve widespread
access to and use of broadband;
• Content and applications development is undergoing profound change. As the
creation, funding, sharing and distribution of content in the digital world increases
in complexity, a fundamental concern of business, government and civil society
should be the stimulus of local and diversified development-centric applications,
in local languages;
• Security, authenticity, and integrity issues will become ever more important,
particularly with regard to privacy, protection and confidentiality, and must be
addressed, otherwise large-scale investment in broadband infrastructure is
unlikely to fulfil its potential.
20 21
Defining Broadband in 2010 Table 1: Theoretical time to download data online at different connection speeds

In its work, the Broadband Commission for Digital Development did not explicitly define
the term ‘broadband’ in terms of specific minimum transmission speeds1 in recognition
of the range of market definitions in different countries. Broadband is sometimes also Download: 56 kbps 256 kbps 2 Mbps 40 Mbps 100 Mbps
defined in terms of a specific set of technologies,2 but many members of the Commission (dial-up)
found it appropriate to refer to broadband inclusively as a network infrastructure capable
of reliably delivering diverse convergent services through high-capacity access over a
mix of technologies.
Simple web page 23 seconds 5 seconds 0.64 seconds 0.03 seconds 0.01 seconds
(160 KB)
This Report therefore refers to broadband as a cluster of concepts, including:
• Always-on: the Internet service is subject to real-time instantaneous updates,
without users re-initiating connection to the server (as is the case with some dial-up ITU home page 107 seconds 23 seconds 3 seconds 0.15 seconds 0.06 seconds
Internet connections). (750 KB)
• High-capacity: the connection should be low latency and high-capacity3 in its
ability to respond rapidly and convey a large quantity of bits (information) arriving
per second (rather than the speed at which those bits travel). 5 MB music track 12 minutes 3 minutes 20 seconds 1 second 0.4 seconds
• As a result, broadband enables the combined provision of voice, data and video at
the same time.

Against this background, the Broadband Commission for Digital Development proposes 20 MB video clip 48 minutes 10 minutes 1 minute 4 seconds 1.6 seconds
that all relevant stakeholders engage in creating a strategic framework for building a
Broadband Development Dynamic, specifically targeted at the accelerated achievement
of the MDGs, Knowledge Societies and beyond through the inter-dependent forces of CD / low quality 28 hours 6 hours 47 minutes 2 minutes 56 seconds
Policy, Infrastructure, Technology, Innovation, Content and Applications, People movie (700 MB)
and Government (see Figure 1).

DVD / high quality 1 week 1.5 days 4.5 hours 13 minutes 5 minutes
movie (4 GB)

Australia (90%),
Denmark (75%),
1 ITU has defined broadband telephony as a service provided over an access network “able to contain at least one channel capable of supporting a Stated national Finland (100%
UK (100%),
rate greater than the primary rate, or supporting an equivalent information transfer rate” – see the ITU-T Database of terms and definitions (SANCHO), available
broadband targets HH), Korea (100%),
at: http://www.itu.int/sancho/index.asp. France (100%), Germany (75%
(% population or EU-defined HH, 50Mbps)
New Zealand

households [HH] to (75%), Portugal
2 For example, the ITU Trends in Telecommunication Reform Report (2009) notes fixed broadband can be implemented through technologies such target (100%)
as cable modem, DSL, FTTx, Metro Ethernet, WLAN. Mobile broadband is implemented through wideband CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, HSDPA, etc. be covered) (35% HH),
Singapore (90%
HH with 1 Gbps).
3 For measurement purposes, ITU and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently harmonized their broadband
definitions for fixed (wired) and wireless broadband. ITU recognizes fixed (wired) broadband services as subscriptions to high-speed access to the public
Internet (over a TCP/IP connection) at downstream speeds equal to, or greater than, 256 kbit/s. Wireless broadband services include satellite, terrestrial fixed
wireless and terrestrial mobile wireless subscriptions with advertised download speeds of at least 256 kbit/s. Broadband definitions were revised at the ITU
Expert Group on Telecommunication/ICT Indicators meeting, held in Geneva on 29-31 March 2010. For further information, see: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/ Source: ITU
events/geneva102/index.html.
3
Creating a
Broadband
Development
Dynamic:
A Strategic
Framework
for Action

Figure 1: The Broadband Cloud – A Virtuous Cycle for Digital Development

Source: Broadband Commission

Focusing on MDG
Acceleration and Delivery
in 2010
In times of economic and social crisis,
models and mindsets must adapt
rapidly, and ubiquitous broadband is a
big idea for which the time has come.
As identifying replicable lessons and
key gaps for scaling up and fast-track
implementation of the MDGs becomes
the primary focus for the international
development community in 2010, what
should leaders in business, government
and civil society be doing to re-energize
and re-focus on delivery?
disconnects, or if incentives for
innovation and investment by the

• Firstly, it must be recognized that

progress in achieving the interlinked
MDG agenda of poverty, education,
gender, health and environment is
not helped if there are inter-agency

private sector are choked. Identifying

replicable lessons and key gaps for
scaling up and fast-tracking joined-
up implementation of projects
remains a key challenge for the
development community that must
be addressed head-on.
23
24 25
• Secondly, the at-once immensely energy, transport and content distribution, have not always seized the opportunities deployment and subscribers as a
disruptive yet hugely collaborative are now recognized with a view to action for economic savings and improved measure of their national ability to
nature of the mobile, Internet by both the public and private sectors. services that can be established in these compete in the global economy. In some
and high-speed broadband value areas by developing communication countries, there is a clear understanding
chains must be embraced and In its report, Network Developments in services further. (and constant media coverage) of the
exploited for the global public Support of Innovation and User Needs, the importance of national rankings in terms
good sooner rather than later. Swift OECD offers a new approach to building In the 21st Century, broadband networks of broadband infrastructure and take-up.
adjustment of broadband policy the most forward-looking networks must be regarded as vital national Which factors distinguish the countries
and plans must be prioritized. possible by evaluating what short-term infrastructure – similar to transport, leading in the national deployment of
cost savings would have to be achieved energy and water networks, but with an broadband? Do these countries lead in
• Thirdly, advocacy for both in other key economic sectors to justify impact that is even more powerful and far- broadband deployment by fortune, sheer
technology and development the investment. The perhaps surprising reaching. As a general purpose platform wealth or design?
must be used to reignite the MDG answer is that, on average, cost savings of for innovation and investment, broadband
campaign and put it once again at just 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent in each networks can help to: control and use Policy leadership and political willpower
the forefront of the global agenda. of these four key sectors over ten years energy more efficiently; manage healthcare at the highest level are fundamental to
The Broadband Commission for could justify the cost of building national in poor, ageing or isolated populations; promoting the deployment of broadband
Digital Development must focus the point-to-point, fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) deliver the best possible education to networks and development of content
attention of all actors on exploitingnetworks in OECD countries. future generations; take better care of and ICT skills. Those countries that have
the use of communication our environment; streamline transport succeeded in rolling out broadband
technologies to accelerate joined- In many cases, the social returns of networks; and also help to accelerate networks and integrating them into their
up delivery of the MDGs today broadband connectivity are potentially progress towards the MDGs. economic and social fabric have done
rather than tomorrow. much larger than the costs of building so not necessarily on the back of vast
networks. Savings in the health sector The following sections delineate the wealth or huge investments, but on the
alone in OECD countries could justify the convergent and interdependent forces basis of early and consistent prioritization
cost of rolling out a fast broadband network of broadband at every level of policy-
Broadband if health costs were to fall between 1.4 per
of Policy, Infrastructure, Technology,
making. The most successful adopters of
Innovation, Content and Applications,
Spill-Over Effects cent and 3.7 per cent as a direct result of People and Government and how broadband (including Japan, the Republic
having the new network in place. In other they can be harnessed, and critically of Korea and Scandinavian countries) were
Today, the increasingly general purpose words, the inability of all stakeholders to quick to recognize broadband as a national
assessed by multi-stakeholder
platforms for innovation and investment take into account the full social costs and priority needing separate and steady
development partners, to create a
afforded by the mobile, Internet and network externalities may lead to non- investments, in addition to investments in
Broadband Development Dynamic.
now broadband revolutions are already optimal provision of services and reduced the broader telecommunication domain.
leading to connected nations and innovation.
national transformation in the delivery Successful countries often advocated the
of ‘digital public goods and services’. Opening up telecommunication 3.1. Policy: simultaneous development of National
From Clear Policy
In the 21st Century, the social and markets to competition, and the ability ICT Policies which provided the enabling
economic development of every country for entrepreneurs to internalize some
Leadership to
environment and capacity-building
on earth will depend on equitable and externalities, can help lead to increasing programs for their citizens to acquire the
affordable access to broadband networks access and innovation with demonstrable an Enabling skills and confidence to create, share,
for all citizens. benefits for people living in developing Environment preserve, and ethically use information.
countries (eg, in online remittances and
The ‘spill-over’ benefits of digital network mobile money transfer etc.). On the In many industrialized countries, regular Coordinated policies are needed across
investment in terms of innovation and other hand, although public funding attention is given by policy-makers, a variety of different domains. In fact, the
cost-savings in other sectors of the often provides the bulk of expenditure regulators and industry to quarterly countries leading the world in broadband
economy, including health, education, for health and education, governments figures for broadband investments, have often succeeded in establishing a
26 Broadband Development Dynamic where and administrative traditions and market Policy-makers and regulators need to For mobile telephony, overly aggressive
27
policy, infrastructure, technology, realities. Establishing an enabling policy establish appropriate policy goals related taxation has been shown to impact
content and applications, innovation, environment within which the provision to broadband and refrain from imposing the diffusion of wireless broadband
people and government interact in a of broadband networks and services can regulatory restrictions except where negatively, with an adverse impact on
virtuous cycle of supply and demand. flourish can only be done in collaboration strictly necessary to promote competition economic development. 5 The removal of
Policies should not focus solely on the with industry. Governments are encouraged and consumer protection. Governments taxation and import duties on computers
supply of infrastructure, but must take into to work together with industry and other should adopt simplified, flexible and and ICT equipment could help enable
account demand for broadband services stakeholders to take onboard their technology-neutral licensing regimes schools and hospitals to benefit fully
and content across the range of user concerns in arriving at regulatory solutions to provide for existing players as well from the advantages of ICTs by boosting
groups. Since broadband technologies to the challenges affecting their market. as easy market entry by new players, their use of computers. Fiscal policies
are pervasive and cross-cutting, whilst making more spectrum available that apply specific, special taxes to the
broadband must be prioritized across For most operators, beyond a clear for broadband and commercial use, and telecommunication sector are often
different policy domains. allowing providers the choice of the most inefficient and cause distortions that
statement of policy leadership, the
appropriate technologies. “crowd out” private spending, ultimately
everyday reality of policy-making takes the
National policy priorities must also be form of regulation, taxation and customs diminishing consumer welfare. Policy-
translated into practical strategies. and import duties in the set of rules and Governments may also choose to makers and regulators should take
According to ITU’s latest statistics, 161 regulations established by government. encourage commercial infrastructure- onboard the concerns of industry and
countries and territories had a national Governments are encouraged to re- sharing and the greater availability of work with operators to develop efficient
e-strategy in place by April 2010, with examine these regimes with fresh eyes frequency bands to allow operators to tax regimes which aim to develop the ICT
another 14 countries and territories with a view to promoting the faster growth deliver broadband services (wireline or sector through longer-term investment
currently formulating a national e-strategy.4 of networks and services. wireless) more effectively, and to promote incentives. Depending on the elasticity
(Note: The number of Broadband the utilization of new and emerging of the local market, taxes and customs
Commissions globally is being researched technologies, such as smart grids. duties on the one-off purchase and
for the forthcoming background Report). Governments also need to create the import of telecommunication equipment
Towards Effective Regulation can often be recouped over lower tax
regulatory incentives to move towards
next-generation mobile broadband (4G/ rates on greater market revenues from
Broadband strategies deserve special
A conducive regulatory environment added growth in ongoing demand for
consideration in terms of their own national IMT Advanced).
which balances the needs of business telecommunication services.
framework to ensure that countries are
with the needs of consumers is essential.
not left behind on a low-speed path to a
Governments should recognize the need
non-competitive future. For developing Taxation and Customs Duties as an
for an appropriate regulatory framework Incentive, Not a Burden to Business
countries, broadband strategies must
fostering broadband access to enable 3.2. Infrastructure:
Investing in
be integrated with national strategies
for education, healthcare, power and the development of infrastructure-based Although the telecommunication sector is
transport infrastructure, as well as their competition in addition to service-based often an important source of tax revenues Infrastructure
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers competition. To fully exploit the benefits
of wired and wireless technologies and
and levies in the formal economy in many for the Future
(PRSPs). Effective regulatory and policy developing countries, there are serious
frameworks merit additional consideration convergence (allowing the delivery of consequences to applying taxation regimes In addition to ensuring an adequate supply
to ensure that broadband services are services across different technological or rates which prove too great a burden for of national bandwidth, the availability of
realized beyond higher-income, more platforms and giving users access to business. Overly aggressive approaches to affordable international Internet bandwidth
profitable urban areas. new kinds of communication and media taxation reduce the growth potential of any is vital for providing high-speed Internet
services), governments need to create a market by making the purchase price of connectivity to citizens, governments
Policy priorities must be developed favourable regulatory environment including handsets and the ongoing cost of services and businesses alike. International
in context, and have to reflect the allowance for total service convergence too expensive, often for the very people Internet bandwidth remains unequally
telecommunication market structure of (in multi-play offers) and competition in all who can least afford telecommunication distributed, with far less international
each country and accommodate legal building blocks of broadband deployment. service, but whose need may be greatest. Internet bandwidth available to developing

4 “National e-Strategies for Development: Global Status and Perspectives 2010”, ITU, published in collaboration with the UN, UNECA, UNECE, 5 “The Impact of Taxation on the Development of the Mobile Broadband Sector 2010”, Telecom Advisory Services LLC and the GSMA.
UNESCWA and UNESCAP, May 2010.
28
countries compared with developed
countries. By the end of 2009, fixed
broadband penetration in the developing
world stood at 4 per cent, compared with
close to 23 per cent in the developed
world, according to ITU analysis.
Partly as a result of the limited availability
of Internet bandwidth, broadband
access remains prohibitively expensive
in many developing countries. In Africa,
for example, there is an inverse relation
between penetration and prices: while
mobile penetration is high, prices are
relatively low. Broadband Internet prices,
on the other hand, are very high and
penetration levels are very low. The
prohibitively high price for broadband
services in Africa clearly remains a
major bottleneck to greater uptake of
broadband services.
Wireless technologies play an important
role in providing greater connectivity to
high-capacity networks, particularly in
the developing world. By the end of 2009,
there were around 670 million mobile
broadband subscriptions, of which over
a quarter were in the developing world.
This trend, as well as with the strong
growth in subscriptions and the advances
in wireless technology, highlight growing
opportunities for countries to join the
information society. The demand for
radio frequency spectrum is likely to grow
rapidly, a major issue which policy-makers
need to address urgently – noting that, as
a precious resource, spectrum allocation
must be based on costs, efficiency of use
and the needs of users.
Broadband networks and services can
enable operators to take advantage of
market convergence and create new
revenue streams, while expanding access
to ICT services at lower costs to consumers.
A high-capacity fibre optic packet
transport backbone is the fundamental
backbone infrastructure that countries
need to deploy to support the growth in
broadband services. Developing countries
can leap-frog and take advantage of the
latest cost-effective and easy-to-deploy
fibre optic technology instead of following
the evolutionary path taken by developed
countries. Public-private partnerships
(PPPs) can help drive the deployment
of broadband, particularly in rural and
underserved areas. Public investments
and subsidies in broadband services
need to be accompanied by regulations
to ensure effective competition and
transparency of information.
3.3. Technology:
Future-proofing
Technology
In planning the roll-out and deployment of
broadband networks, it is unlikely that any
single technology will be able to provide all
the answers. Optical fibre is desirable at the
core of the Internet, and for the majority of
backhaul traffic, to achieve a high-capacity
backbone, but at the edges of the network,
and in particular in the hands of end-users,
it is most likely that mobile devices will
deliver many broadband applications and
services. Indeed, this is already the case,
with nearly 900 million mobile broadband
subscriptions forecast to be achieved
globally by the end of 2010.
Satellites also provide invaluable solutions,
particularly for providing capacity in hard-
to-reach rural areas and for providing the
essential backhaul capacity needed by other
operators to reach their customers. Recent
catastrophic events have also highlighted
to governments the important role played
by satellites for achieving emergency
preparedness and responding to events
(such as the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti
and the floods in Pakistan).
Depending on local conditions such as
geographic location, economic prosperity,
rural or urban environments and local
terrain, there is a role for a host of different
technological solutions in providing
broadband access – from cable to fixed
wireless; from satellite to microwave;
from xDSL to mobile technologies; and
many more. Policy-makers should seek
to adopt a technology-neutral approach
as regulation needs to accommodate new
upgrades of current technologies, as well as
future technologies which do not yet exist.
Future-proofing technology – as well as
the regulation to cope with the technology
– may be impossible to achieve fully, but
some technologies are likely to be more
future-proof than others (eg, those with
greater transmission capacity). Regulatory
frameworks need to be designed with
this in mind, so the future development of
broadband is not stifled by bureaucracy,
inefficiency or lack of regulatory foresight.
Alongside convergence in content,
technological convergence means that
devices such as radios, televisions,
telephones, cameras or computers are often
no longer unique or even separate from one
another in the digital era. Smartphones have
proved to be game-changers, combining a
mobile phone with personal organizer, music
29
player, digital camera and multimedia
entertainment with Internet access and
email on the move. Consumers are
having to adjust their expectations and
behaviour with demand for services
taking new forms.
As the ‘Internet of Things’ emerges, driven in
part by new monitoring, measurement and
reporting activities – such as those needed
to run smart grids, for example, or modern
public transport systems – there will be
increased interaction and interdependence
between different devices and networks.
It is therefore important to recognize that
the full benefits of broadband cannot be
realized without maximum interoperability
and globally-agreed standards – and to
ensure that these standards are used
to create and preserve openness and
transparency, rather than proprietary
applications, devices or services.
As well as standards, enforceable
interconnection policies can enable
providers, suppliers, third parties and end-
users to gain the maximum benefits of
ubiquitous, always-on connectivity, and
enable widespread information-sharing
and e-business.
Lastly, from a technology perspective, it is
essential to recognize that local conditions
and the availability of supporting
technologies are often critical factors in
determining technology choices for the
roll-out of broadband infrastructure. In
areas where there is no regular or reliable
electricity supply, for example, there is a
need for creative power solutions to keep
the network and routers running, as well
as recharging the mobile devices which
connect to them.
30
3.4. Innovation:
The Changing
Nature of
Innovation
The telecommunication industry is
characterized by constant innovation.
Many vital innovations have been made in
network technologies (eg, DSL, DOCSIS
3.0, UMTS, LTE, TCP/IP protocols, IMS
and encoding algorithms to mention
just a few) or in business models (eg,
marketing innovations, such as pre-paid
tariffs). Without the innovations of pre-
paid or flat-rate tariffs by operators and
content providers, millions of people
would not have been able to afford to
use ICT services.
The emergence of broadband networks
is rewriting the rules for innovation. Too
often equated with high-cost research and
development (R&D) carried out in technical
research labs, most innovation (the
process) and some of the most valuable
innovations (or individual inspirations) in
fact arise through incremental learning
and continual technical improvements
at the grassroots – on the factory floor
and elsewhere. ICTs are empowering
consumers, workers and employees to
improve products and services to the
benefit of all. Broadband in particular
offers the opportunity to accelerate and
transform innovation through faster and
more unrestricted access to advanced
services and applications.
Barriers to entry and obstacles to
innovation are being lowered or eliminated;
ideas can be published and shared online;
problems can be outsourced or solved
collaboratively. In the information age,
the very nature of innovation is changing.
Today, a single piece of software or
innovative device can:
• Create a new market (eg, eBay
created a global market-place for
online auctions);
• Take an existing market online (eg,
ebooks);
• Transform an established
market (eg, Voice over Internet
Protocol has revolutionized voice
communications); or
• Combine existing markets into a
converged market in the digital age
(eg, smartphones successfully unite
a mobile phone with a digital camera
with a music player and online
Internet access for information and
entertainment).
Broadband networks and the Internet are
transforming the nature of innovation –
creative individuals with interest can now
acquire the knowledge and skills needed
to innovate in the information society
online. If ICTs and the Internet are populist
and collaborative platforms, innovation is
less likely to be characterized by high sunk
costs and long lead-times and will become
increasingly dominated by user-generated
content, crowd-sourcing or, put simply, the
strength of a good idea.
Firms’ relationship with innovation is
also changing. Many companies are
introducing collaborative platforms and
social networking platforms to mine for
innovations and inspirations among their
workforce, without ideas getting lost in the
vertical hierarchy. Some companies have
even closed down their R&D departments
and transferred their innovation &
improvement function to their customers
(eg, Lego). More recently, initiatives are
emerging uniting network operators
and manufacturers to collaborate with
application developers and businesses in
innovative business models to generate
valuable innovations (eg, the Wholesale
Applications Community or WAC). Open
source code or applications can be
developed by online communities of
developers to solve the everyday problems
they encounter in their lives as consumers,
parents or individuals. As a result, more
efficient processes in business and
development and innovation are starting
to emerge, tailored to real need.
But how can any of these changes
in the innovative process help poorer
communities or individuals in developing
countries? Using broadband networks,
poorer communities or individuals can
be empowered to voice their challenges
online for solution with the help of others. for the measurement of linguistic diversity.
Innovative solutions to practical problems
(eg, for a broken water pump or irrigation
system) can be posted or shared online.
The policy emphasis needs to shift from
the prioritization of formal R&D towards
prioritizing incremental learning, in
collaboration with other partners and
other people, using the Internet as a
platform for communication and problem-
solving. It is only once the changing
nature of innovation is recognized, and
basic functional literacy needs are met,
that poorer communities in developing
countries can really start to benefit from themedia content.
problem-solving capabilities of the world’s
largest information exchange network.
31
3.5 Content and
Applications:
The Growing
Importance of
Content and
Applications
As has been witnessed across the ICT
world, connectivity without content
can make even the most sophisticated
technologies irrelevant or of limited
value. In today’s virtual world, it is vital
that governments do not neglect the
importance of content. Policy-makers
have to emphasize the development
of rich and diverse online content and
applications alongside infrastructure and
propose concrete policies and practices
for inclusion of new languages and tools
Some of the main issues with regard
to content include making more online
material accessible in local languages or
accessible to people with limited functional
literacy skills. The digital divide is a result
not only of a lack of access to connectivity
and infrastructure, but also of a lack of
relevant and locally-developed content
which can make a big difference to the
lives of ordinary people. It is important
to recognize that broadcasting also plays
an important role in the developing world
in the creation and dissemination of rich
Linguistic diversity on the Internet is
growing. One of the latest examples of
the evolution of the multilingual Internet
is the introduction in the root of the first
internationalized country code domain
names. It is expected that millions of
people around the world who do not know
Latin script-based languages can now join
the family of existing Internet users.
32 33
So there are grounds for optimism. The The power of collaborative online Box 1: Broadband and linguistic diversity7
changing nature of innovation in Web 2.0 services to crowd-source, mine for ideas
means that consumers are increasingly Available data to measure the linguistic diversity on the Internet suggest that the
and produce a coherent product from
writing and developing their own user- majority of content on the worldwide web is produced and hosted in a limited number
multiple disparate inputs is illustrated
generated content. Communities of full- of countries, and published in only a limited number of languages. The figure below
by services such as YouTube, Facebook visually highlights the linguistic diversity of cyberspace by showing that while there is
time application developers are springing and Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia
up, creating applications to suit their a total of 7,000 languages still in use in the world, only 41 languages are recognized
written mainly by volunteers. Although by one of the world’s most popular search engines (although other estimates put the
own needs. Meanwhile, opportunities in
it has faced quality control issues of number of languages supported by Google higher, at 104 languages). This compares to
the local development of content offer
reliability, bias and accuracy, one study 271 languages with Wikipedia entries and 500 localized languages.
fresh business possibilities for small- and
by Nature magazine found that Wikipedia
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and
for young entrepreneurs in developing had an accuracy rate close to that of the Figure 2: Key figures for languages online and off-line, 2010
countries to exploit. At the same time, Encyclopaedia Britannica.6 Such services
multilingual content production is closely illustrate the growing power of crowd-
linked to complex issues such as the sourced services to provide diverse, yet
availability of funding and various types coherent products.
of other resources at local, national or
regional levels and the political, cultural
and economic environment. It will be
important to continue lowering the costs of
technology, to make it more accessible to
all groups of society, and in particular, future
generations of application developers.
Free and open source software is now
available that is enabling the creation of
localized applications.

Source: ITU World Telecommunication Development Report 2010, based on data from Ethnologue, SIL
International (Summer Institute of Linguistics), Wikipedia and Google.

There is no agreement among linguists on the size of the language universe, but the
figures usually range between 6,000 and 9,000, due to difficulties in distinguishing
between dialects and languages. The number of localized languages is an estimate.
Many sources also stipulate that there is a huge number of endangered languages.
The latest edition of the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger lists about 2,500
languages (including some 230 languages which have become extinct since 1950),
approaching the generally-accepted estimate of some 3,000 endangered languages
worldwide (source: http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00139).
The Internet can be seen also as tool for language conservation and preservation, if
digitalization can be undertaken soon enough.

6 “Internet encyclopaedias go head to head”, Nature 438: 900–901, Jim Giles, December 2005 at: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/
n7070/full/438900a.html; “Wikipedia survives research test”, BBC, 15 December 2005 at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4530930.stm. 7 Abridged from “Measuring the Information Society 2010” report published by ITU in May 2010, available at: www.itu.int.
34 35
the global development agenda with
3.6. People:
Box 2: The most popular languages on the Internet Building the transformational potential, for example, in
e-learning, e-literacy and e-skills.
Network of Ideas
The distribution of Internet users by language further suggests that a few major and Information From a people perspective, what is
languages are dominating the online world. The largest share (about 30 per cent) of needed to build this network of ideas?
Internet users speak English, followed by Chinese (20 per cent) and Spanish (8 per Modern ICTs are proving to have a How can people contribute their human
cent) and the top ten languages by Internet users make up some 84 per cent of all transformational effect on people’s lives. capital to this phenomenon? Two distinct
Internet users. At the same time, the percentage of English-speaking Internet users The Internet has been described by one sets of needs are apparent. The first is the
dropped from 80 per cent in 1996 to 30 per cent in 2007, reflecting the fact that an observer as “an explosion of capacity specialized human capacity, knowledge
increasing number of non-English speakers are going online. thrust into the hands of people worldwide, and skills to build out broadband networks
the instrument not only for the greatest - whether from a policy, regulatory,
outburst of creativity and self-expression business or technical perspective.
ever seen, but also of the greatest
Figure 3: Top ten languages (by Internet users) on the Internet, 2009
autonomy and self-determination, as The second is the human capacity,
well as an unparalleled mechanism for knowledge and skills to use and benefit
cooperation and cohesion”.8 from these networks – which should be
considered part of normal cognitive skills
One of the greatest contributions of development, whether through normal
broadband to global development will education or lifelong learning. In both
be that it provides a platform which scenarios, ICTs are part of a virtuous circle
can exponentially increase the ability of – because access to broadband helps
people to create and exchange ideas and people to exchange ideas, creativity and
knowledge. Just as the wonders of the knowledge about how to build, use and
brain cannot be understood by studying leverage ICTs.
individual neurons, the benefits accrued
from broadband go far beyond individuals Investing in broadband is not necessarily
— in particular, ideas and creativity and an investment in infrastructure, but rather
self-expression emerge out of linkages an investment in people. For broadband is
between people, as well as complexity of really an investment in an interconnected
those linkages. world of ideas and knowledge that can be
spread in seconds from one corner of the
Throughout history, the real engine of earth to another — the “meeting and mating
human progress has been the “meeting of ideas to make new ideas”. And investing
Source: Internet World Stats, quoted in ITU World Telecommunication Development Report 2010. and mating of ideas to make new in people and their ideas to solve their own
ideas”.9 It has been argued that it is even problems contributes more to empowering
unimportant how clever individuals are those people and making progress in the
— what really matters is their collective global development agenda than virtually
intelligence. Therefore, our objective anything else policy-makers can do.
should be a highly interconnected world
of creativity, ideas and knowledge to help
us address the challenges set out in the
MDGs. To that end, broadband inclusion
for all is a fundamental component of

8 Stephen Downes’ blog, available at: http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2010/06/gathering-of-ideas.html.

9 Author Matt Ridley, at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Global 2010 conference
36 37
3.7. Government: The UN Department for Economic and
Government Social Affairs (UNDESA) notes that while

Can Take the

on-demand access to public services
over the Internet is now a norm in many
Lead in Creating developed countries, barriers persist in
Broadband Demand many LDCs, due to the cost of technology,
lack of infrastructure, limited human
Government plays a special role in capital, a weak private sector and a paucity
many developing countries in creating of public sector resources.10
demand for next-generation broadband
services. Building out fixed broadband However, exceptions exist, such as
infrastructure typically involves large-scale e-education in Bangladesh and Ethiopia,
investments over long-time horizons and and m-health in Rwanda. UNDESA notes
the private sector benefits from more that these experiences demonstrate that
certain prospects in its attempts to finance significant gains can be realized in LDCs
and roll out such infrastructure. where there are legal and regulatory
frameworks in place, including more
If governments can aggregate their specifically an e-government strategy
connectivity needs over the National with clearly identified sectoral priorities
Broadband Networks (NBN), they can aligned with national development goals.
make the business case for national For example, Ethiopia has now connected
infrastructure more compelling. This is nearly 600 local administrations to regional
especially the case in developing countries, and federal offices, linked 450 secondary
where government is usually one of the schools to a national education network,
major users of broadband infrastructure, and provided some 16,000 villages with
access to broadband services.11
but it is increasingly also the case in
industrialized countries and transition
For many users, however, the potential
economies, including Azerbaijan, New
of e-government goes far beyond basic
Zealand and Singapore.
connectivity and relies on developing
services which people want, in their local
Moving government services online
languages. Countries which have made
offers the prospect of revitalizing public
a determined effort to develop local
administration and improving the speed,
script and language tables, content and
efficiency and effectiveness of service
applications have seen a significant surge
delivery. More fundamentally, it also
in the usage of ICTs. Broadband demand
promises to transform the way in which is thus intrinsically linked to the creation
citizens relate to their governments and of local content, services and applications
policy-makers, by making the work of which citizens then can leverage for their
politicians and civil servants more public own progress. Technology will never be
and transparent. Governments are any substitute, however, for ethical and
increasingly having to respond to growing cooperative public sector service delivery,
expectations for communication with which can only be led from the top echelons
tech-savvy citizens. of government.

10 & 11 P. 4, UN E-government survey 2010, available at: http://www2.unpan.org/egovkb/documents/2010/E_Gov_2010_Complete.pdf.

4
BROADBAND
AND THE
INTERLINKED AND
INTERDEPENDENT
MDG AGENDA
The remodelling of the ICT 4
Development landscape in real-
time presents key challenges and
opportunities to all players. Each must
chart a path toward digital inclusion
through unknown terrain.

For major donor agencies who have

been struggling to incorporate ICT into
their official development assistance
(ODA) strategies, the MDGs provide
a welcome compass. After years of
experimentation on ICTs in often stand-
alone, often unsustainable pilot projects,
attention is now being drawn to the need
to leverage ICTs for poverty reduction
strategies and the MDGs through a focus
on integration, scaling and replication.
And broadband provides a new and
innovative entry point.

From experience, it is clear that ICT

and technology ‘push’ projects have
generally been ill-suited to fulfilling the
requirements of the MDGs. Rather,
‘pulling’ ICTs and now broadband into
development projects where appropriate
and relevant at an early stage – often
with a mix of traditional and new media
and achieved through multi-stakeholder
partnerships – to achieve greater efficiency
and improved service delivery will have far
greater poverty impact.

In practice, any blueprint for a national

e-development strategy will comprise
a number of essential elements: a clear
e-strategy vision championed at the
highest political level; a multi-stakeholder
approach to enhance results; a cross-
sectoral holistic strategy; realistic priorities
for e-strategy actions and programmes;
simplified implementation modalities;
national and international cooperation and
partnerships for a prioritized and nationally-
owned e-strategy; global inclusion of
developing countries and ICT in ODA; ICT
to facilitate regional integration and regional
integration to facilitate ICT deployment;
telecommunication and ICT
cohesion, convergence, and low-cost
policy

cutting edge solutions; and an overarching

focus on achieving the MDGs themselves.

So what is the critical role of knowledge and

information in economic and human welfare
with respect to the MDGs? How can ICT and
the MDGs practically contribute to empower
stakeholders in the PRSP process, improve
the efficiency of public and private service
delivery, and enhance livelihoods? To what
extent should ICT 4 Development priorities,
policies and practices differ with respect
to ‘off-track’ versus ‘on-track’ developing
countries? These key questions must now
be revisited in the broadband context.

Yet resistance by government and

business to full acceptance of the critical
role to be played by ICT in support of the
MDGs must quickly be displaced by hard
data on development impact and the real
potential to scale up and replicate. While
39
40 41
significant anecdotal evidence has already
Goal 1: Eradicate ‘disintermediation’ cuts out middlemen, interactivity, shared resources and help
been amassed in this direction, major
Extreme Poverty resulting in higher profits and rewards for
farmers and producers and lower prices
level the playing field for everyone.

and Hunger
efforts are now underway to produce
systematic measurement criteria. Today, for consumers when price information is Online education is easing the resource
mainstreaming ICT and broadband for the shared on-demand via mobile phones and bottleneck in training teachers; UNESCO
While access to ICTs and broadband may text messaging. estimates suggest that as many as 10
achievement of the MDGs remains very
be seen by some as less urgent priorities million additional teachers will be needed
much a work in progress, and this Section
than meeting the basic needs of food Since women are more affected by poverty globally by the 2015 MDG deadline.14 Many
describes the generic development impact
and shelter, it is increasingly the case than men, enabling women to create countries are already actively pursuing an
across all eight MDGs.
that information poverty – especially in and / or enter employment is an effective intensive programme of teacher training
developing countries – can actually lead to strategy to combat poverty, and ICTs and online, but more needs to be done: in
Progress towards achieving each of the and contribute to poverty and hunger.
broadband are key to helping women particular, access to broadband needs
MDGs can be accelerated with ICTs in
become functionally literate for greater to rapidly become more affordable,
general, and broadband in particular. This Between 1998 and 2008, the global particularly in the developing world. PPPs
access to skills training. The experience
is not because ICTs and broadband are number of working poor – workers living designed not only for students but also for
of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has
ends in themselves, but because they act with their families on less than US$ 1.25 a the communities in which they live (such
shown that women with experience of
as enablers like no other technology in day – fell from 944 to 632 million, or from as ITU’s Connect a School, Connect a
even basic mobile phones are more likely
the modern world – bringing healthcare, 38 per cent to 21 per cent of total workers. to be willing to use and benefit from other Community initiative) can achieve a great
education and government services to However, as a result of the economic and ICTs for information or work opportunities. deal in accelerating progress towards
people wherever they live, as well as financial crisis, it is estimated that in 2009, bridging the broadband divide.
leveraging training opportunities around this number increased by up to 215 million,
the world. reversing much of the progress achieved Using ICTs and broadband to advance
during the previous decade. Globally, the
number of hungry people rose from 842
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education does not need
Mobile cellular has proved to be the
most widespread and fastest-adopted million in 1990-1992 to 1.02 billion people Universal Primary to be limited to boys and girls, but can
also include men and women who never
technology in history, with five billion in 2009, of which the large majority were
12 Education had the chance to attend school – and
mobile subscriptions globally in 2010, and women and girls. studies consistently show that literate,
Even as many poor countries make educated women are more likely to ensure
a household penetration rate of over 50
tremendous strides, hope is dimming for
per cent in many developing countries. Access to knowledge assets such as that their children attend school. ICTs and
information, know-how, market price Universal Primary Education (UPE) by broadband also enable inclusive education
Mobile telephony is empowering billions of
data, and basic healthcare and nutrition 2015. Although 89 per cent of children of persons with disabilities.
individuals worldwide by enabling them to
guidelines can dramatically improve living in the developing world are now enrolled
enter the workforce, earn a living or work
standards and bring people out of the in primary education, some regions – in Around the world, m-learning and
more efficiently, and benefited millions of particular, countries in sub-Saharan Africa
poverty trap – and ICTs and broadband are e-learning over broadband networks is
communities worldwide. key to making this happen. – will see a drop-out rate of up to 30 per growing, with mobile network growth
cent before the final grade.13 And demand continuing to outpace fixed-line networks,
The next step is to bridge the Internet Available data suggest a strong and positive from those who continue in education is and the number of mobile broadband
divide, and especially the broadband correlation between communications now putting pressure on the next step in subscriptions approaching 900 million in
divide, in the same way that we are so and levels of development. At the micro- the system: secondary education. 2010. Mobile phones offer the advantages
successfully bridging the mobile divide. level, studies from Africa and India of already being in billions of hands in the
With ICTs and broadband, successful consistently show that, even for very small Broadband offers a potential solution in the developing world and offering relatively
efforts to advance the MDG agenda can farming and fishing businesses, market- ability to deliver education in developing well-deployed and stable network
then be scaled up and replicated around matching efficiencies will apply when and developed countries alike. Broadband infrastructures. Many schools that have
the globe. there are good communication links. Such networks can deliver information, been using TV and radio systems are now

12 Source: The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010, UN New York, at www.un.org/millenniumgoals. 13 Source: The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010, UN New York, at www.un.org/millenniumgoals.
14 Source: World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report 2010, available at http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/wtdr_10.
42
switching to online learning opportunities, enable women to better fulfil their work
due to their inherent interactivity.
Broadband-enabled ICT applications
commitments, and can help overcome
issues of mobility. ICTs and broadband can
should be seen both as a pedagogical also be used to influence public attitudes
tool and as a discipline in their own to gender equality, create opportunities for
right for the development of effective women as educators and activists, and
educational services. enhance opportunities for networking and
organizing for gender equality, as well as
female participation in political processes.
Goal 3: Promote ICTs and broadband are directly relevant to
Gender Equality empowerment and gender equality in both
43
Given that there are rarely enough health
Goal 5: Improve
practitioners to serve everyone in need
of healthcare, ICTs and broadband are
Maternal Health
essential for bridging this gap. Advances
in modern medical technology usually More than half a million women die
every year as a result of complications in
require large amounts of money, but
pregnancy and childbirth, almost all of them
telemedicine can make a huge impact
in the developing world.17 The vast majority
with relatively simple low-cost technology.
of these deaths are preventable. Although
Just one computer, a scanner and a digital
maternal mortality rates are falling, the rate
camera, for example, can transform a
hospital, making a real difference where
of reduction is still considerably short of
it counts. It is also important to automate
the 5.5 per cent decline needed annually

and Empower
Women
In many emerging economies and rural
areas, women remain economically and
socially marginalized and under-educated,
suffering from relatively poor employment
prospects. While many countries have
achieved or nearly achieved primary
school gender equality – the enrolment
gap narrowed from 91 girls to 96 girls for
every 100 boys in the developing world
between 1999 and 2008 – progress still
remains slow in other areas. Women
are disproportionately represented in
vulnerable or insecure employment. In
some countries, women represent only
20 per cent of the workforce employed
outside agriculture, while within agriculture,
incomes remain low.15
ICTs and broadband are key to achieving
empowerment and gender equality.
They provide an excellent means of
opening up opportunities in education
and employment, as well as access to
information, and have the potential to
neutralize much of the discrimination
traditionally faced by women. The
flexibility provided by the use of ICTs and
broadband in education and work can
cause and effect – increasing women’s
access to ICTs and broadband will help
achieve these goals, and achieving
gender equality will help increase
women’s access to ICTs and broadband.
Key stakeholders must develop gender-
focused or gender-neutral technology
and application programmes to ensure
that broadband mitigates, and does not
widen, gender gaps.
Goal 4: Reduce
Child Mortality
In many regions of the world, including
Northern Africa, East Asia, South-Eastern
Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean,
child mortality rates have more than halved
since 1990, but globally, the fall has only
been 28 per cent, which is still well short
of the target of a two-thirds reduction.16
Tragically, most of the major causes of
child mortality – malnutrition, pneumonia,
malaria, diarrhoea, measles, HIV/AIDS,
tetanus – are treatable, but communities
lack both the resources and the knowledge
to treat them. Children’s health is closely
correlated with maternal health and (more
loosely) with maternal education.
to meet the MDG target, however. In Africa
systems properly in hospitals (eg, through and South Asia, fewer than half of all
the use of Entreprise Resource Planning or births are attended by a midwife or skilled
ERP) to minimize the manual paperwork health worker, and complications during
in offices, clinics, health centres etc. that pregnancy and childbirth remain the most
can cause delays and queues in providing frequent cause of death for women.18 Lack
health services to patients. of access to health services is particularly
acute for women in remote rural areas.
Mobile technology can also be used to
disseminate basic health and sanitary While there is obviously no substitute
information to parents (such as vaccine for increased numbers of healthcare
reminders, and advice on maternal professionals and their attendance
hygiene and nutrition); to train intermediary before, during and after childbirth,
healthcare workers and rural doctors; to broadband services have already
begun to demonstrate their potential for
track disease and epidemic outbreaks; to
monitor patients remotely; and to remind improving the health of women and their
babies. High-speed Internet connections
patients about the need to take medicines
enable health workers outside major
or come in for a check-up.
centres to receive quality training and
exchange experiences and information
To leverage the full power of telemedicine,
through video-conferencing, interactive
broadband is needed to enable doctors
discussion forums and the use of social
to share images and diagnose patients networking sites.
hundreds of miles away using technologies
such as video- conferencing, for example. Broadband services give women easier
A number of developing countries – for access to information on family planning,
example, Kenya and Rwanda – are already hygiene and other reproductive health
prioritizing broadband as a platform for issues, including visual presentation
future health service delivery in a bid to materials, information in local languages,
improve patient care, dissolve distance and culturally-appropriate content.
and bring telemedicine to tens of millions Expectant and new mothers can get better
of people, thereby reducing child mortality. information about childbirth and the early

15 & 16 Source: The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010, UN New York, at www.un.org/millenniumgoals. 17 Source: United Nations, as reported at www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/dsgsm497.doc.htm.
18 Source: The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010, UN New York, at: www.un.org/millenniumgoals.
44
warning signs of infection or disease for
themselves and their children. Broadband
applications linked to ‘smart’ mobile phones
or portable computers linked to mobile
broadband networks can enable health
workers to create and access online patient
records and to transmit health information
to policy-makers and researchers. And
there is an important and growing role for
community centres with Internet access to
deliver essential connectivity and health
information, especially to women in rural
and remote areas.
Goal 6: Combat HIV/
AIDS, Malaria and
a third of young men and less than a fifth
of young women in developing countries
know how HIV/AIDS is transmitted and
how to prevent infection.
By making customized access to
information quick and easy, broadband
applications are already helping in the
global fight against disease. They include:
• Interactive e-learning courses on
HIV/AIDS for educators, such as the
ones developed by UNESCO;20
• Online training and refresher courses
for health workers, including video-
conferencing;
• Information-sharing between health
professionals on treatment practices,
taking their medicines, and to enter and
access patient information.
Broadband Internet can also provide
powerful research and surveillance tools
to tackle disease more effectively – by
mapping the Mycobacterium tuberculosis
genome, for example, or using satellites
to map areas where malaria-carrying
mosquitoes are likely to be found.
Last but not least, ICT community centres
can give girls and women access to
undistorted and objective information on
how to prevent sexually-transmissible
diseases, including AIDS. Women with
HIV can receive information on treatments
for preventing the transmission of HIV to
45
change or impending natural disasters,
such as drought or floods. They can
provide early warning systems that reduce
vulnerability to disasters. Combined
with Global Positioning System (GPS)-
enabled mobile phones, they can support
emergency communications and medical
assistance when disaster strikes. And by
enhancing environmental surveillance,
they can help policy-makers devise
suitable response strategies and make
more efficient use of resources.
Broadband-powered GPS-based
applications can also help monitor
environmental abuses (eg, illegal logging
or pollution levels) and transmit that
information to authorities. They can facilitate

other Diseases guidelines and so on, through online

discussion forums, bulletin boards
their unborn babies, and those caring for
relatives with HIV can access support and
knowledge exchange and networking
among policy-makers, practitioners
and social networking sites; advice. ICT community centres can also and advocacy groups, boosting
Although there has been progress in • Continuing professional education public awareness and encouraging
provide women with valuable information
curbing the rate of new infections – the new online; environmental activism.
on how to combat and treat malaria,
HIV infection rate fell from an estimated • Personalized risk assessments for tuberculosis and other diseases.
peak of 3.5 million in 1996 to 2.7 million HIV/AIDS through interactive online Automatic weather stations at mobile
in 2008, for example – diseases such as programs. Some people may find it phone masts can be used to provide
malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS still easier to answer questions posed information directly to farmers and
Goal 7: Ensure
kill more than four million people annually, by a computer than to talk face-to- fishermen via mobile phones, enabling
and an estimated one billion people suffer
from neglected tropical diseases.19
face about sensitive subjects;
• Information, education and Environmental them to predict and cope with erratic
weather patterns due to climate change.
awareness-raising campaigns about Sustainability Broadband can enhance such systems
Success in combating these diseases often the risks of getting infected and further, by supporting more sophisticated
depends on the effective dissemination of effective ways of protection (through The MDG on ensuring environmental modelling and faster information-sharing.
information about prevention, treatment websites, including interactive visual sustainability spans a wide range of Environmentally-friendly work habits
and cure, and persuading people to take features and hotlines providing targets, from the provision of safe drinking are also increasingly prevalent in many
simple low-tech preventive measures, advice and additional information water and basic sanitation facilities to countries, promoted through ICT and
such as using condems or insecticide- on demand). reducing biodiversity loss and improving broadband in areas such as reducing paper
treated bed-nets. The provision of quality the lives of slum-dwellers. consumption and facilitating teleworking.
information to those at risk, to patients, Combining broadband with the mobile
to care-givers and to health-workers and phones that are most widespread in the In virtually all these areas, broadband Innovative ICT projects have already
researchers, is fundamental. developing world also has the potential networks can make an important proved their worth in improving the lives
to transform health service delivery – for contribution. They can swiftly transmit of slum-dwellers – for example, in Brazil,
For instance, HIV prevention is critical to example, by expanding schemes to check information from ground sensors or India and Kenya – by providing access
controlling the AIDS epidemic, yet less than that AIDS and tuberculosis patients are satellites to monitor the effects of climate to employment and training. Broadband

19 Source: The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010, UN New York, at: www.un.org/millenniumgoals.
20 Source: http://hivaidsclearinghouse.unesco.org/.
46
Internet can do far more than this, however,
by enabling the delivery of government
services online and giving small businesses
in slum areas the opportunity to participate
in e-commerce. Perhaps most importantly,
broadband can empower slum-dwellers
often excluded from the political process
to have a ‘voice’, delivering access to
information and providing a means for them
to communicate, share their concerns and
mobilize for change. Sharing experiences
of what works, learning from others and
changing people’s expectations of their
living conditions and livelihoods are all part
of the complex challenge of empowering
people to improve their own lives.
47
stakeholder partnerships involving
governments, the private sector and civil
society. Only then, with full access to the
information society, will people be able to
find innovative ways out of poverty.
Broadband networks can also help with
other targets within MDG 8, such as
addressing the special needs of land-
locked and Small Island Developing States
(SIDS). High-speed Internet connections
can enable these countries to overcome
geographic disadvantages and link up with
the rest of the world, including through
e-business and by exporting services that
can be delivered through communication
networks, such as call centres and
business processing.

Goal 8: Develop a Similarly, distance working enabled by

Global Partnership broadband can help in advancing another

for Development
MDG 8 target, to develop strategies for
‘decent and productive work for youth’. And
by enhancing distance learning through
MDG 8 includes a specific target on video-conferencing, interactive discussion
extending the benefits of new technologies, and social networking, broadband Internet
including ICTs, in cooperation with the can help improve skills of all kinds, not only
private sector. While the phenomenal in ICT. Broadband networks hold great
growth of mobile telephony in the promise for broadband-enabled scientific
developing world has transformed access applications with the need to manipulate
to basic connectivity, the ‘digital divide’ and transfer extremely large datasets.
persists, especially where the Internet and
broadband are concerned. The greatest contribution of broadband
towards achieving the MDGs may be its
While around a quarter of the world’s catalytic role in empowering people by
population now uses the Internet, in the giving them both knowledge and a voice
very poorest countries, that proportion in the public arena, as ICTs and broadband
is just one or two per cent.21 The gulf in have the power to level the playing field
access to broadband networks is even across different countries and different
greater. types of economies. Beyond 2015,
broadly universal and widespread access
Progress will depend on thinking to broadband should be a key concern of
creatively about how to speed up access policy-makers in setting the next round of
to broadband, including building multi- global targets.

21 Source: ITU – see Internet users 2009, at www.itu.int/ITU-D/ICTEYE/Indicators/Indicators.aspx.

5
This section reviews some of the key
global challenges of the 21st Century
that broadband connectivity and
content are uniquely placed to address,
namely: climate change; the shifting
Broadband
burden and demography of ageing
populations; and the growing costs
associated with healthcare.
and
Broadband and Climate
Change
Beyond
Climate change is one of the biggest
challenges facing humanity today.
the MDGs
Although climate change is a natural
phenomenon and debates continue over
the origins, mechanisms and extent of
climate change, it now seems likely that
human activities are accelerating this
49
natural phenomenon in an artificial way,
ultimately contributing to a sudden and
rapid warming of the planet, partly through
the release of greenhouse gases (GHG) and
carbon-based emissions. Human activities
may also interfere with the planet’s natural
mechanisms for responding and adapting
to climate change.
Hundreds of millions of people are now
increasingly vulnerable to the knock-on
effects of climate change, living in areas at
risk from more frequent and more severe
natural disasters (such as floods, hurricanes
and landslides). A disproportionate number
of these people live in developing countries
with only limited resources to cope with
the impact of climate change. Despite
the scientific, statistical and political
uncertainties surrounding climate change,
what is certain is the need for coordinated
international action – to enable countries
to monitor, plan for and respond to the
inevitable impact of climate change on their
peoples, cities and communities.
ICTs have a critical role to play in combating
climate change through the reduction of
GHG emissions. Defined in its narrowest
sense (as telecommunications, computing
and the Internet), the ICT sector has been
estimated to account for between 2-2.5
per cent of GHG emissions – mainly in
the power demands of devices (such as
phones or computers) and the operation of
ICT networks (through the operation of data
centres or telecommunication equipment).
However, since ICTs are cross-cutting
technologies used in other industrial
sectors, the representative figure for the
broader ICT sector may be higher than this
baseline estimate. It is clear is that, unless
further decisive action is taken soon, the
contribution of ICTs to GHG emissions
is likely to rise in parallel with the strong
50
market growth and growing use of data
and ICT services worldwide. However,
many promising initiatives are underway
in the ICT sector which should help curtail
this rise.
ICTs, and broadband in particular, also
offer significant promise for combating
climate change – ICTs can also be part
of the solution. Broadband technologies
are more energy-efficient than other, older
and more traditional means of delivering
services, and ICT solutions can result in
lower overall carbon-based emissions.
In addition, the availability of broadband
will reduce the emissions of other sectors
through greater adoption of more energy-
efficient ICTs. An excellent example is the
use of smart grids, which could reduce
GHGs by 5-9 per cent (for the United
States)22 or the power needs of electrical
supply systems by as much as 30 per
cent (in the case of India, according to
the SMART2020 report).23 In addition,
virtualization (eg, reading e-books) and the
use of advanced technologies (eg, video-
conferencing) could substitute for carbon-
intensive activities (such as printing paper
books or air travel). ‘Green ICTs’ or ‘smart
ICTs’ are a recent, but important and fast-
growing sector in their own right.
Even more importantly, because ICTs are
pervasive cross-cutting technologies,
prioritizing the use of more energy-
efficient technologies such as broadband
offers policy-makers an effective means of
leveraging reductions in GHG emissions
across different industrial sectors at
once. Investments in smart ICTs offer
22 “Connecting Smart Grids & Climate Change”, Silver Spring Networks, November 2009, available at: http://www.silverspringnet.com/pdfs/SSN_ 27 United Nations, World Population Prospects 2004, Prepared by Larry Rosenberg and David Bloom (Harvard University); quoted in “Global
WP_ConnectingSmartGrid-1109.pdf.
23 “SMART2020: Enabling the Low Carbon Economy in the Information Age”, The Climate Group/GeSI, at: http://www.smart2020.org/_assets/ 28 Presentation by Philips Healthcare, to the FTTH Council Europe Conference, February 2010, quoted at: http://www.ftthcouncil.eu/home/latest_
files/02_Smart2020Report.pdf.
24 World Health Report 2001, available at: http://www.who.int/whr/2001/annex/en/.
25 “Ageing and Population”, UN population division, at: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/ageing/ageing2009chart.pdf.
26 http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPA2009/WPA2009_WorkingPaper.pdf.
developed and developing countries
alike the opportunity to invest in – and
innovate for – the future, for the sake
of future generations. The initial upfront
costs of investing now in more energy-
efficient broadband technologies pale into
insignificance compared with the longer-
term costs of coping with the effects of
climate change. Greater adoption of more
energy efficient ICT-based solutions is no
longer an option, but a necessity.
Broadband and the
Shifting Burden and
Demography of Ageing
Populations
Declining fertility and birth rates, combined
with increased life expectancy, are leading
to ageing in the global population. In 1990,
one in every twelve persons (or 8.95 per
cent of the world population) was over
60.24 In 2009, this had grown to one in
every nine persons and the so-called
“older population” of the world amounted
to 737 million persons, nearly two-thirds
of whom live in developing countries. The
global population aged 60+ is projected to
reach 2 billion in 2050 or 22 per cent of the
global population.25 By 2050, older persons
will outnumber children (less than 14
years of age). The UN Population Division
has concluded that population ageing is
“unprecedented, profound, enduring and
pervasive”, 26 affecting nearly all countries
on earth.
This global demographic trend is split
sharply, however, between developed
and developing countries. In developed
countries, populations are generally ageing
earlier and more rapidly – the number of
people aged 60+ exceeded the number
of 12- to 24-year-olds in the late 1990s.
In developing countries, the number of
people in less developed countries aged
60+ is not expected to exceed the number
of 12- to 24-year-olds until 2045.27
This ageing in the world population will
have a profound impact on all aspects
of social and economic growth – on
savings, investment, consumption, labour
markets, pensions, taxation, the demand
for housing, epidemiology and the need
for healthcare services. Broadband
infrastructure is important for catering
to the range of different needs of elderly
persons. As the current digitally-literate
generation matures, they will continue to
participate in online services. A computer-
literate generation used to shopping
and spending time online is likely to
indulge these habits in retirement or seek
alternative online careers to supplement
meagre pension payments (where these
are available). Some of their most basic
ongoing needs may be for information,
entertainment, lifelong-learning and
retraining.
Broadband infrastructure is likely to prove
vital in the delivery of healthcare services
to growing numbers of elderly persons.
Always-on real-time connectivity is The World Health Organization (WHO)
essential for the monitoring and surveillance has observed that huge inequities exist
of elderly persons, enabling them to live in the provision, health outcomes,
Demographic Trends”, IMF magazine, September 2006, at: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2006/09/picture.htm.
news/hot_news_from_the_ftth_conference_in_lisbon!/?cid=37&nid=527&catid=8.
51
independently for longer. Broadband
connectivity is also essential for medical
“compliance monitoring” to ensure that
elderly people take their treatments – the
main reason why medical treatments fail,
according to Philips Medical.28 Sensor
networks can be used to monitor the long-
term situation of elderly persons in poor
health, from mundane matters such as
the formation of skin lesions and bedsores
to more serious monitoring of cardiac
function, diabetics’ sugar levels or blood
pressure. Monitoring and alert systems
can also be used to notify distant health
personnel in case of crisis (eg, a stroke,
cardiac arrest or epileptic seizure).
Broadband infrastructure is also
essential for long-distance diagnosis,
teleconsultation and medical imaging.
High-bandwidth computing is needed
for recording, storing and transmitting
detailed images using advanced software
for the analysis of degenerative diseases
associated with ageing (eg, dementia,
Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s). The
ageing of the real-world global population
is likely to be reflected online in the virtual
world in ways that are as yet only beginning
to be understood.
Broadband and the
Growing Cost of
Healthcare
52
financing of and access to healthcare
services, within and between countries.29
The WHO records that, globally, annual
government expenditure on health varies
from as little as US$ 20 per person to
over US$ 6,000. Population growth, the
ageing of populations, scientific progress
and medical advances in diagnosis and
treatment mean that the annual costs of
healthcare are rising in many countries
around the world. Healthcare is now the
world’s largest service industry, an industry
that alone was worth US$ 4,000 billion in
2006.
Meanwhile, systems for financial protection
are in disarray – the WHO estimates that
for 5.6 billion people in low- and middle-
income countries, more than half of all
healthcare expenditure is made from out-
of-pocket payments, while expenditures
on health push over 100 million people
below the poverty line each year. In many
countries, the financing of healthcare may
be haphazard, with people who are well-
off and generally healthier having the best
access to the best health care, while the
poor may be left to fend for themselves.
The roll-out of broadband infrastructures
for health may require significant upfront
investments. However, broadband
technologies are likely to prove cost-
efficient and reduce ongoing costs for the
digitization, transmission and storage of
patients’ medical records and imagery.
E-health can reduce the costs on the
system via remote consultation and
intervention - especially as the proportion
of the population over age 60 rises
significantly.
Even beyond positive cost savings, the
digitization of vital patient medical records
29 & 30 Press release, World Health Report 2008: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2008/pr38/en/index.html.
53
offers key advantages in the recording,
preservation and availability of patients’
known medical history and risk factors
for maximum information disclosure in
diagnosis and treatment. Electronic health
records can help treat patients along
complex referral chains, speeding up
treatment and potentially improving health
outcomes.
Broadband does not necessarily mean
‘high-tech’, however. Broadband
backbones connecting major hospitals
can be used effectively to deliver
lower-bandwidth services to local
populations (such as basic monitoring or
communications with outlying clinics in
more rural areas). Simple services (such
as SMS alerts, appointments or patient
reminders) can be used effectively to
improve the delivery of health services
and reduce secondary costs (eg, the travel
costs to remote clinics).
In its World Health Report 2008, the WHO
noted that healthcare is often delivered
according to a model that concentrates on
diseases and high-tech specialist care, with
health viewed as a product of biomedical
intervention, with the power of prevention
largely ignored.30 The WHO has called for a
return to holistic primary healthcare, with a
focus on community support. In countries
with high broadband penetrations, there
is potential for greater doctor-to-patient
interaction between hospitals/doctors and
end-users at home to improve awareness
and education about health outcomes
and steps to prevent illness and disease.
Most types of healthcare, including
primary healthcare, can be enhanced by
investments in improved infrastructure.
6
Action
The United Nations General Assembly
is asked to note the recommendations
of the Broadband Commission for
Digital Development and in particular
the concept of ‘Broadband Inclusion
for All’ and its mapping to achieving
the MDGs in relation to the relevant
resolutions of its Second Committee
and to acknowledge the work of the
Commission in support of Article 19
of the Declaration of Human Rights.
Action Point 1
CONNECTING
BROADBAND
WITH THE MDGS
RECOMMENDATIONS
AND KNOWLEDGE
SOCIETIES
AND
Building global commitment to
broadband inclusion for all by
connecting broadband with the MDGs
and knowledge society priorities.
PROPOSED
a) At the global level, world leaders at
the 2010 MDG Summit must galvanize
PLAN OF ACTION
the international community to act
on a common vision of the power
of technology and innovation, built
on broadband, to accelerate the
55
achievement of the MDGs and other
internationally-agreed development goals
and key knowledge society priorities such
as those of the WSIS by 2015, in the context
of the new digital realities and opportunities
of the networked society and economy.
b) At the national level, governments should
adopt national broadband strategies,
recognizing that, in the information age,
broadband – like water, electricity, and
roads in the industrial age – is not just a
tool for communication, but a social asset
that provides one of the most cost-effective
and efficient means for delivering services
to citizens and comprises a nation’s core
functions, provides a variety of services, and
should be made available to all members of
society, in their own languages.
c) National ICT Policies should be
encouraged to build inclusive knowledge
societies where all citizens have the skills
and confidence to create, share, and
preserve information and knowledge to
improve their lives. Governments need to
promote policies in universal access and
these policies should include broadband
access as an essential element of universal
access and services.
d) Special consideration should be given
to the direct application of broadband
solutions to address the cross-cutting and
cross-sectoral aspects of the MDG agenda.
Specifically, evidence pertaining to impact,
new business and social models, and
sustainability is essential in demonstrating
the benefits of broadband diffusion for
scale-up and replication across all eight
MDGs.
e) A mid- and long-term perspective, taking
into account the requirements of diverse
communities and stakeholders, is essential
56 57
in forming a consensus for broadband a) Fundamentally, what matters for much on the demand side in all its forms, h) Special attention must also be paid,
investment and uptake. Governments development is how much value will be including education, healthcare, ICT skills, notably by equipment manufacturers,
should play a pivotal role in exploring created by broadband inclusion for all. We availability of public e-services, etc. as to ensuring the development of global
innovative financing mechanisms and request all Governments at various levels on the supply side. standards and the interoperability
incentive strategies. to expedite the delivery where possible of global networks.
of all public services for government
f) Advocacy efforts should be prioritized transformation centrally and locally using e) Governments should consider policies i) While in many cases, the cross-cutting
for building a global market in broadband broadband to substantially improve the aimed at stimulating private sector and cross-sectoral benefits of broadband
devices, networks, software and solutions access, transparency, convenience, growth and investment through innovative have in the past resulted in stalled or
that will harness the power of network security, flexibility, quality and cost of loan and incentive structures, avoiding unsustainable investments and in many
effects, as well as spill-over effects of service delivery. additional taxation on the ICT sector. They ways obscured the catalytic effect that
broadband across multiple sectors, may also consider proactive subsidies by broadband inclusion for all will ultimately
while improving framework conditions b) Political will and leadership at the government in services in countries where have on the MDGs, these benefits must be
for interoperability between broadband level of Prime Minister or Head of State there is little or no possibility of attracting better explained to citizens and consumers.
products and services. is required: a future-oriented networked private investments, and in-demand
society and economy require future- stimulus through the promotion of digital j) We believe that broadband policies should
g) Ultimately, new national development oriented vision, thinking and prioritization. public goods, which have been shown in be expanded to include hardware and
models based on universal access to Broadband must be clearly embedded in some cases to contribute to a virtuous software needs, financing requirements,
broadband connectivity and multilingual national development policies that build on cycle of investment from both public and and policy priorities. We believe that there
content can aspire to the goal of ‘digital broadband as a development accelerator. private sector entities and a proliferation of is a need for complementary investments
opportunity’ – that is social and economic public-private partnerships. in supporting technologies (such as
development made possible via access c) National success stories have shown electricity) and investments in community-
to knowledge that can narrow gaps that a top-down approach matched with based access models.
between rich and poor and among classes grassroots involvement and ownership is f) Policy objectives for broadband inclusion
and regions. necessary for constructing a national digital must include the provision of broadband- k) Broadband policies should be expanded
economy. A clear national policy must enabled service and applications for remembering that one of the main reasons
h) We urge all relevant stakeholders to be developed that not only contributes vulnerable, disadvantaged and remote for fostering broadband is the great overall
continue to pose the key questions of what to the expansion of basic broadband groups, the youth, and Indigenous Peoples. benefit for society in the new applications
incentives can be created by governments infrastructure, but is also an engine for In addition, boosting trust and confidence and services which can be delivered over
to encourage and enable the private sector national competitiveness. Promoting in ubiquitous broadband with regard to it. Given changing demographics, it will
to invest. broadband roll-out to key public institutions safety, protection, privacy and security is be impossible for both developed and
(such as schools, libraries, post offices, a prerequisite to building consensus and developing countries to deliver adequate
hospitals and health clinics) is an effective commitment to broadband inclusion for all. education and health services, for example,
private-public partnership strategy. to all their citizens, without broadband
infrastructure in place.
Action Point 2 d) Broadband is an unrivalled tool for g) Special attention must be paid to
BENEFITTING FROM social integration and e-inclusion, so increasing the availability and affordability l) While the benefits of constructing
TRANSFORMATIONAL applying broadband to address economic of radio frequency spectrum as a critical broadband networks and promoting
CHANGE and social challenges such as rising enabler for wireless broadband growth. broadband-embedded devices may
healthcare costs, ageing populations and Fair competition and new services, as not always appear obvious in the short-
Maximizing social and economic climate change must be a primary focus for well as regulatory reform and fair licensing term, over the intermediate and long-
stimulus with broadband inclusion multi-stakeholder partnerships, including procedures, need to be taken into term, they demonstrably accelerate the
for all via transformational change in public-private partnerships. Governments consideration in allocating radio frequency provision of high-profile digital public
healthcare, education, government and must recognize that the success of spectrum, under a technology- and goods such as digital health (e-health
environmental sustainability. broadband initiatives will depend as service- neutral approach. and m-health), e-learning and e-literacy,
58 59
e-government and e-business, leading to b) The maximum benefits of broadband remedies, and mutual support in the event for all relevant stakeholders that requires a
economic revitalization, green growth and access and transport will likely be derived of attacks and / or malware propagation, far better understanding of the value chains
social integration. if sufficient capacity is available and among other issues, bearing in mind of digital production. Policy-makers must
access to this capacity is possible through that there are already several existing recognize the need for balance between
m) To benefit from the cross-cutting and adequate and fair mechanisms. In general, international cooperation programmes to the creation and diffusion of content, and
cross-sectoral nature of broadband, reasonable network management practices address these issues. that creators in the digital world are entitled
governments should consider ways should deliver ‘fair’ access to resources to fair compensation.
of aggregating connectivity on among competing providers of access. f) Global standards, designed to act
national broadband networks. The as enablers not barriers, deliver clear c) The global spread of broadband
connectivity needs of public sectors in c) It should be recognized that intelligently- advantages including interoperability, provides unprecedented opportunities
all countries will grow as populations managed state-of-the-art broadband economies of scale, and a level playing- for promoting cultural diversity through
come to expect their governments to infrastructure is the prerequisite for future field for all stakeholders. the provision of a multitude of content
expedite and deliver public administration new content services and applications. and services in local languages. This in
and government services over Without such infrastructure, which needs turn would lead to a burgeoning of local
broadband networks. to be financed adequately by the users cultural industries, capacity development
and end-users (eg, customers and Action Point 4 and help in the creation of jobs. Such
anyone offering services and applications ENABLING CONTENT a development also has the potential
over the Internet), there will be no AND APPLICATIONS of significantly lowering the costs of
Action Point 3 possibility for sustainable growth in data
CREATION access, by creating demand for local
USING TRANSPARENT, and Internet usage. content and services.
FAIR, COMPETITIVE, Developing the right conditions for
TECHNOLOGY- d) It is also important to recognize
broadband content and applications
d) Policy-makers should also note that

NEUTRAL MODELS
Addressing issues of convergent
broadband networks toward transparent
and fair, competitive, technology-neutral
models, offering interconnection and
interoperability at the national, regional
and global levels.
a) Higher capacity access to the Internet
provides a platform for a wider range
of applications so it is implicit that
investments in such capacity can benefit
and reward innovative and creative
ideas for applications. Those who invest
in communications capacity are not
necessarily those who may benefit from
applications and services, so innovative
mechanisms need to be found to ensure
that broadband deployment is not stalled
through lack of investment.
that no single technology will provide
ubiquitous broadband services. It is likely
that, where economically and physically
feasible, the core of the Internet will
typically use optical fibre to achieve very
high speeds. The interconnection of fibre-
based networks in the global Internet
is most likely to deliver success where
fibre connections can be implemented. In
addition, radio infrastructure clearly has
an ongoing role to play. Whether wide-
area terrestrial or satellite, broadband
radio access can provide favourable
economic characteristics in areas lacking
fixed infrastructure.
e) If the full benefits of the broadband
Internet are to be realized for all,
international cooperation will be required
for enforcing the meaning and utility
of digital signatures, law enforcement,
agreement on the definition of abuses and
digitization has enormous potential to
creation, diffusion and distribution via reduce the cost of content distribution,
an enabling environment based on trust enabling the online exchange of content
and confidence for economic and social at very low rates, no matter how small or
stability and prosperity. dispersed a community might be. Today,
innovative new legal content business
a) All relevant stakeholders must models for the Internet (eg, Hulu, Spotify)
recognize that in the digital economy, the are being created which suggest that
unprecedented opportunities afforded traditional business models may need to
by flows of ideas and information and change to tackle the challenges associated
almost limitless access to content, with piracy.
culture, knowledge and applications
pose challenges for existing national and e) As broadband usage increases, issues
international rules and regulations. of online privacy, confidentiality and
security are becoming more important and
b) Digital networks have given rise to must be addressed at the national, regional
unprecedented levels of content piracy that and international levels. This will require
will be further exacerbated in the broadband the development of technical solutions,
era. As copyright and intellectual property as well as education, awareness-raising
right infringements multiply, the issue of and the establishment of related laws
remuneration for content creation and and regulations. At the same time, global
distribution will become a central concern international cooperation based on multi-
60
stakeholder partnerships is needed as
these issues are often multi-sectoral
in nature.
f) Implementing local broadband projects
requires a well-organized administrative
system that stimulates not only the
government’s engagement, but also
participation from the local community.
Local communities should be encouraged
to voluntarily engage in projects by
identifying and promoting the best
practices in local ICT development, taking
into account local languages.
g) Promoting and preserving ethical
aspects and principles, while developing
creative multilingual content and universal
access to ICTs is central for achieving
an equitable presence in, and access
to, cyberspace. Embracing coherent
ethical guidelines is essential in the face
of increasing globalization. Thus, the
definition and adoption of best practices
and voluntary, self-regulatory, professional
and ethical guidelines should be
encouraged among media professionals,
information producers, users and service
providers with due respect to freedom
of expression. Access to information for
all remains a fundamental right which
should be upheld with efficiency and
imagination in a spirit of equity, justice
and mutual respect.
Action Point 5
EMPLOYING
BROADBAND TO HELP
COMBAT CLIMATE
CHANGE
Utilizing broadband technology and
innovation for energy conservation and
improved efficiency, emergency disaster
response, and monitoring, reporting and
verification of climate change data.
a) We urge public and private partners
to make full use of technologies and
applications such as smart grids, remote
working and intelligent transport systems
which use broadband connectivity
to ultimately benefit all nations in the
drive towards energy conservation
and efficiency.
b) We encourage investment strategies
to maximize energy savings via the use of
‘virtual’ services enabled by broadband
infrastructure in health, education, public
administration, transportation, agriculture,
environment and content distribution
networks, among others.
c) We encourage the widespread utilization
of renewable energy sources such as water,
wind and solar energy in the deployment of
broadband networks.
d) We note that the global increase of
devastating earthquakes, floods, tsunamis,
hurricanes, drought and wildfire activity,
which may result from global warming, have
emphasized the critical need for instant and
interactive emergency response, disaster
relief and post- reconstruction efforts that
can be enhanced via broadband networks.
61
e) We believe the universal deployment of d) Governments should set targets for
broadband networks will be an invaluable
tool for better monitoring, measuring and
the provision of broadband access and
services to women and girls and track
evaluation of climate change data. their progress through the collection
of reliable sex-disaggregated data, as
recommended by the United Nations
Division for the Advancement of Women
Action Point 6 in 2005. Specific targets should be set for
ACCELERATING broadband-enabled training. Governments
BROADBAND ACCESS participating in the MDG assessment may
FOR WOMEN AND consider setting the target of ensuring that
GIRLS at least 50 per cent of women and girls
have broadband access by 2015, including
Accelerating access to broadband
through community ICT centres connected
to broadband networks.
infrastructure and services for women
and girls, to promote gender equality and
social and economic development.
e) Policy-makers should encourage the
use of broadband networks to eradicate
a) Active steps should be taken to
functional illiteracy and promote career
accelerate access to broadband
training, and other essential ICT skills,
infrastructure and the use of broadband- including financial and business literacy
enabled services by women and skills for women and girls. Such training,
girls, in order to promote gender which can be provided in community
equality, empowerment and the social ICT centres, will enable women to set up
and economic development of both online businesses, or to use broadband
men and women.
services, such as e-commerce and social
networking sites, to enhance their ongoing
b) Governments should encourage
livelihoods and economic activities.
investment in broadband infrastructure to
help women become better educated and
support their children’s education, improve f) Governments must recognize the
their access to healthcare, receive job potential dangers posed by broadband
training, conduct meaningful commercial services to women and girls, especially
activities, enforce their legal rights, and in luring them into prostitution or
play an active role in local and national trafficking, and take active steps to
government affairs. minimize these dangers.
c) Policy-makers should also recognize
the importance of broadband for women in g) Governments should be encouraged to
the unpaid economy and domestic female create policies to ensure that women and
workers in fulfilling their work commitments, girls have access to the same opportunities
and bring reliable remittance services as men and boys in terms of access to
and affordable communications to those broadband-based services at school
working away from their home countries. and work.
62 63
broadband-based society and methods for
Action Point 7 support such as training and promotion is
Action Point 8
SUPPORTING necessary to facilitate their use, taking into
consideration local languages, education BROADBAND modelling the social and economic impact
of broadband diffusion, in cooperation
WIDER BROADBAND needs and literacy issues. MODELLING, with relevant stakeholders.
INCLUSION FOR ALL EVALUATION AND
d) Special attention should be given to the MONITORING d) A set of specific indicators should be
Supporting wider broadband inclusion provision of broadband for education as created that will allow broadband progress
for all for least developed countries and well as for disadvantaged and vulnerable Modelling, evaluation and monitoring of to be measured. Such indicators will need
countries in special need and extending groups, with particular reference to relative targets and timelines for broadband to combine hard/quantitative data (eg,
broadband access to rural and remote areas indigenous peoples, women and girls, inclusion, with the development of infrastructure, equipment, penetration,
and vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. persons with disabilities, youth and economic, social and usage indicators cost etc) and soft/qualitative ones (eg,
children and ethnic minorities. appropriate to the broadband environment. value and content created from broadband,
a) Efforts should be renewed to mobilize cultural/linguistic diversity, etc).
public and private support for a significant e) Support should be given to partnerships a) It is likely that new methods for modelling
improvement of basic ICT infrastructure to facilitate the setting up of local Internet the social and economic evidence of
in countries where such infrastructure is exchange points (IXPs) and national impact of broadband diffusion will need
most lacking, as well as in rural and remote Internet Service Provider (ISP) associations to be developed in a multi-stakeholder Action Point 9
areas, and for disadvantaged groups. In this to promote wider broadband inclusion, partnership that can be facilitated by BUILDING A GLOBAL
regard, the particular suitability of special especially in the regions and populations a system-wide UN response, such as
PARTNERSHIP
FOR BROADBAND
solutions such as mobile broadband and of the world who need it most. the Partnership on Measuring ICT for
the potential offered by satellite systems Development.
with strong fibre optic backhaul to serve f) The specific needs of LDCs should DEVELOPMENT
LDCs and other countries in special need also be taken into account while planning b) Effective implementation of broadband
should be noted. Using the tools that get regional Internet backbones. History policy needs reliable evidence and Building a global partnership for
the job done best, a partnership should beproves that communication linkages comparable indicators on ICT access, use broadband development with concrete
forged between broadband (point to point) between neighbouring countries have and impact. Hard targets and timelines, commitments, recognizing that the
and broadcasting (point to multipoint) been key promoters and levers to promote such as those identified to monitor cross-sector and cross-cutting nature
infrastructure, applications and services.socio-economic prosperity and continuous the World Summit on the Information of broadband will take us beyond
development. International connectivity Society (WSIS) targets, are required for the MDG agenda.
b) An economic analysis relevant to and regional network infrastructure can be evaluating and monitoring Member States’
Least Developed Countries, Landlocked a powerful tool for elaborating sustainable and regions’ progress in broadband a) Urgent and renewed attention is needed
Developing Countries and Small Island development in LDCs. deployment, as well as agreement in capitalizing on the consensus agreed
Developing States should be undertaken on annual actions to help meet and in MDG 8 to build a global partnership
to determine sustainable business models g) Encouragement should be given to measure such progress. To assess global for development in cooperation with the
for adequate returns on broadband equipment and service providers to work improvements, relative indicators and private sector and ICT communities to
investment at minimum income levels cooperatively with LDCs, for example via global comparisons are needed. reap the full rewards of innovation and
with maximum spill-over benefits across PPPs to reduce delivery costs. investment.
multiple sectors of the local society and c) A core list of ICT indicators, including
economy. The same applies to rural and a number of broadband-related indicators, b) Examples could include identification of
remote areas, and disadvantaged groups. h) Broadband should also be considered has been agreed upon by the international UN system and Member State programmes
The innovative use of ‘digital dividends’ as a solution wherever disaster relief and statistical community under the framework or initiatives for development that are
should be considered. post-conflict reconstruction are priorities - of the global Partnership on Measuring based on technology outreach platforms
satellite services are of particular relevance ICT for Development. This work needs and which may benefit from broadband
c) Where broadband networks are built and importance in this regard, as well as to be expanded to develop measurable scalability. An initial step should be to
in underserved communities, continued other mobile broadband technologies. indicators on all aspects of an inclusive, identify and carry out various broadband
64
projects that require global cooperation,
such as knowledge-sharing through
broadband, global disaster prevention,
resolving educational problems and
disease eradication.
c) A baseline evaluation of the catalytic
impact of broadband technology as
an enabler for the achievement of the
inter-dependent MDG agenda should
be developed in order to quantify the
socio-economic impact of these public
private partnerships.
d) The successful deployment of
broadband would be assisted by a
practical support system at the United
Nations level which will enable the best
practices of broadband use to be shared
and spread globally.
Action Point 10
NEXT STEPS FOR
BROADBAND
65
Commission for Digital Development. compile this information. Project criteria
• A Public Private Partnership should be defined so that the information
Platform for Sustainable Broadband collected is useful to the Commission. The
Business Models. Commission should then analyze good
• A multi-stakeholder Think Tank for case studies for replicability and scalability.
Broadband 4 Development.
f) Broadband Commissioners may support
b) It is strongly recommended that the pilot projects which will demonstrate
principal follow-up actions suggested by the use of broadband technologies in
the Broadband Commission for Digital supporting the MDGs.
Development are firmly and effectively
anchored in the United Nations’ g) Finally, we recommend the creation
forthcoming ‘MDG Accelerator and of National Broadband Plans in all the
Sustainability Framework’. 192 Member States of the UN, with a
twin focus on advocacy and investment
c) We request the UN Secretary-General in broadband.
to consider embedding broadband in the
UN Development Assistance Framework
(UNDAF). In practice, this would be a two-
part actionable item:
a. Agreement of a universal policy for
broadband in the UN System; and
b. Inclusion of a discrete line item in all
technical assistance projects.
d) This task should be pursued under the

PARTNERSHIPS AND
umbrella of building a global partnership
for development between the private
PROJECTS sector, the civil society and ICT community,
including making available the benefits
Next steps for partnerships, with of new technologies, especially ICTs
concrete coordination including (MDG8). A baseline measurement of the
innovative and multi-stakeholder follow- catalytic impact of broadband technology
up mechanisms at the national, regional as an enabler for the achievement of the
and global levels, including national inter-dependent MDG agenda should be
broadband committees. developed in order to quantify the socio-
economic impact of these PPPs.
a) A number of follow-up mechanisms
e) Best practices and case studies
to the Broadband Commission for Digital
Development are recommended that of investment projects in developing
would comprise innovative, dynamic and
countries should be collected and
flexible working methods: summarized, ideally using an online
repository. The Broadband Commission
• A High-Level Advocacy Group for Digital Development should consider
modelled on the Broadband forming a project or a working group to
66 67

Acknowledgements
The Co-Chairs and Vice-Chairs would like to thank the Secretaries of the Commission –
namely, Indrajit Banerjee, Doreen Bogdan-Martin and Denis Gilhooly – and the core team
of Patricia Benoit-Guyot, Phillippa Biggs, Janet Burgess, Jose Maria Diaz Batanero,
Vanessa Gray, Toby Johnson, Piers Letcher, Youlia Lozanova, Sarah Parkes, Béatrice
Pluchon, Jaroslaw Ponder, Ana-Dory Rodriguez, Susan Schorr, Robert Shaw and Susan
Teltscher, as well as Paul Budde, for their unfailing efforts in the preparation of this
Report. The InDesign version of this Report was prepared by Nkumbe Njume-Ebong,
under the supervision of Daniel Lutz. We also thank all Commissioners and Focal Points
for their dedicated and extraordinarily substantive input throughout this process.
68 69
4G Fourth-Generation Mobile Telephony
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
DOCSIS Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification
DSL Digital Subscriber Line
ERP Entreprise Resource Planning
EV-DO Evolution-Data Optimized
FTTH Fibre-To-The-Home
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GHG Greenhouse Gas
GPS Global Positioning System
GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus
HSDPA High-Speed Downlink Packet Access
ICT Information and Communication Technology
IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem
IMT International Mobile Telecommunications
IP Internet Protocol
IPRs Intellectual Property Rights
ISP Internet Service Provider
ITU International Telecommunication Union
IXP Internet exchange point
LDCs Least Developed Countries
LTE Long-Term Evolution
MDGs Millennium Development Goals
NBN National Broadband Network
ODA Official Development Assistance
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

LIST OF
PPP Public-Private Partnership
PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
R&D Research & Development
SIDS Small Island Developing States
SMEs

ACRONYMS
Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises
TCP Transmission Control Protocol
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
UNDESA UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs
UNECA UN Economic Commission for Africa

AND
UNECE UN Economic Commission for Europe
UNESCAP UN Economic & Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNESCWA UN Economic & Social Commission for Western Asia

ABBREVIATIONS
UPE Universal Primary Education
WAC Wholesale Applications Community
WHO World Health Organization
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network
WSIS World Summit on the Information Society
70